Saving Malaysia's Gibbons

Hidden in the depths of the Malaysian jungle is an extraordinary woman making it her life’s mission to rehabilitate gibbons.

- Carolyn Hall

Having spent more than a decade with the Malaysian Wildlife Department, MARIANI “BAM” RAMLI believes in the need for raising awareness on conservation in general, and rehabilitation issues particularly. So, she has branched out alone in order to follow what has become undeniably a passion: that of giving white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) – the only singing apes of Malaysia – a voice.

I’ve come to assist as a volunteer (for a mere five weeks) on her project to save this ape, which appears on the IUCN Red List of endangered species. And I’m experiencing first-hand the sound of these creatures as they sing – for love, for property, for family, for the joy of it. It’s a haunting sound, somewhat mournful but also beautiful, as it rings clearly through the misty jungle each morning.

The males and females join together in a duet, each distinctive in contributing their own song. I’m learning to distinguish by ear the male song from the female; I am also learning to distinguish the individuals that are singing.

Bam’s gibbons

Sharing a 97 percent DNA match with us, these animals are more like humans than we care to admit. And, like humans, each one of the dozen gibbons that Bam looks after has their own personality – their own likes and dislikes, and their own voice. And each has their own sad story. Here are just a few of those:

Daru was under two years old when he arrived, totally malnourished as well as traumatised from being kept in a very small cage surrounded by dogs.