EPRC is welcoming a new gibbon who was kept by a family for twelve years in Hoa Binh Province. The family got it as a gift by a friend who brought it all the way down from Gia Lai Province at the border of Cambodia. At that time the gibbon was a baby of less than a year old and her fur color had not changed to black yet.

They named her Thien Tam, which means good heart in Vietnamese, and she got used to life among humans, being pet and taken into people’s arms, being fed with the same food the family was eating everyday: rice, meat, fruits… We also learned they got a second baby gibbon to keep her company, who died of sickness.

When she grew up, most likely because of the complications of keeping an adult gibbon in their home, the family tried to release her in the mountains behind the house but she came back by herself. After twelve years in captivity, the rangers from Hoa Binh Province Forestry department found out about the gibbon and convinced the family to leave her in our hands.