Rescue and Rehabilitation Projects

December 2011

• New coats for Christmas.  Misu, Nhee and Lucy are all changing colour from the black juvenile coat to blonde adults. This is a tricky time as strong friendships start to splinter with the changing hormones. Lucy is with Khoi, a young male and doing great in the trees, but we have no males for Nhee and Misu.  For some reason we have a bias of females that we rescue, possibly because all the young girls are fighters, while the young males often are more timid, and possible not as strong to survive the cruel illegal trade.

Misu	Nhee

November 2011

• Son arrives.  An adolescent pygmy loris confiscated in a restaurant raid by the Forestry Protection Department was transferred to Dao Tien.  Son is a healthy young male but until adult, too young for release.  We hope in August 2012 when he will be fully mature we will return him to the wild.
  

A keeper fron Pingtung helping with the transfer of the young loris

• Thanh, the adolescent black - shanked douc we released October 2009 on to Dao Tien is now nearly a full sized male and looks magnificent. Thanh now leads his small group of two females and an adolescent and we think that one of the females is pregnant.
  

This is the first image we have managed to get of the now wild Thanh

Update September 2011

• As the rains pour down to new pairs of gibbons start training in the trees.  Young gibbons Khoi and Lucy, who prove to be little dare devils, totally fearless in the trees.  Lucy is one of the best gibbons we have seen in the trees from the moment she returned to them.  To go with her return to trees, Lucy is now rapidly changing colour becoming a beautiful blonde.  The other pair, Limhuyen and Hoa, have been transferred to the large 20ha semi-free.  Limhuyen, who has already had six months in the trees, is very much at home while Hoa is taking things very slowly.  Some days she is finding it easy to climb up a tree, but is struggling to find her way down. 

Lucy enjoying the trees	Hoa and Limhuyen trying to find their swing

• Two new female loris have arrived.  One loris was confiscated locally by the Forestry Protection Department (Sylvia) and a second (Thuy an, pronounced "Twee an") willingly handed over after the owner realised it was an endangered primate from his own research on the internet.  Once the lorises have settled in they will undergo full health checks to see if they are candidates for wild release.

   

	Thuy an being transferred to Dao Tien

• We are very happy to say that two families of gibbons (Merry & Lee Lee with infant Noel and Da & Lat with infant Ngoan) have been transferred to continuous forest for final release.  Both adult males have been fitted with GPS collars for monitoring up to one year.  Sun, a student from the Pingtung Rescue Centre, Taiwan will be supporting Binh and Khang our Vietnamese monitoring team in the forest.

   

Lee Lee fitted with GPS collar and transferred to continuous forest	Khang and Sun monitoring released gibbons

Update June 2011 Nha who was one of the first gibbons arriving on Dao Tien in 2008, pair bonding with Cuchi and having a beautiful son Dong has failed his first lesson in the trees.  Nha in the semi-free travels on the ground, something that wild gibbons do not do and is very dangerous, as it makes him vulnerabel for hunting.  Sadly for now, Nha and Cuchi have been removed from the release program until space arises in the large semi-free for his last change of an opportunity to train for the wild.

Nha in the trees before starting to travel on the ground

• Surveys of gibbon in Cat Tien National Park find that over the last 6 years populations have doubled in some regions, this is great news for golden-cheeked gibbon conservation!  It shows if simply protected well and left alone, numbers of these highly adaptable primates can increase.

   

• Two pygmy loris are radio collared and returned back to the wild!  The pygmy loris Raphael and Lindsay have been released after rehabilitation in our semi-free forested enclosure.  The two are young and were selecting excellent sleep sites in the rehabilitation area.  Now it's the challenge of the wild for them!  Our Vietnamese tracking team, with the support from volunteers, have the task of tracking the two loris in the thick secondary forest, as the rains come down.  Follow our page on Facebook for regular updates and check out our Kids' Zone for fun loris activities!

   

Lindsay ready for release	Binh leads our tracking team

Update April 2011

• Saigon South international School (SSIS) joined us in raising awareness of the plight of the golden-cheeked gibbon in South Vietnam.  Students from SSIS Roots and Shoots conservation group ran a tremendous fundraiser, which was followed by an awareness day at the school with EAST, and a visit to Dao Tien as part of a school field trip to Cat Tien National Park.

   

Dao Tien: K Hoai and Diane with Garcinai fruits	Fun primate activities

If this wasn't enough, the green-fingered Gardening Club are also helping us with our Regeneration Project at Dao Tien by growing fruiting trees at school to be planted on Dao Tien.  These trees are vital not only to improve the forest for all wildlife, but also to provide more fruiting trees to help rehabilitated gibbons learn how to find their own food before they are released.

A huge thank you must go to the school, and in particular to Barbara Wilson, for all your hard work, enthusiasm, and support for EAST.  We are looking forward to woking with SSIS even more in the next school year.

Barbara in class: School outreach	Top Trumps: Designing a Top Trumps game, who is ready for release!

• New arrival - Tony:  This month we rescued a three-year-old male gibbon from a private Vietnamese house in Ho Chi Minh City.  After passing all health checks, Tony has a lot of young ladies to choose from on Dao Tien die to the sex bias of female gibbons.  Misu and Trang will be the lucky ones, two young female gibbons of a similar age, who have been pushing their faces up to the mesh to see him more clearly.  The fact that we are still finding young gibbons in the trade is still a serious threat to the survival of this species.

Tony the new arrival	Fruit tree nursery

• Fruit tree nursery:  The gibbons in final tree traiing phase have found it tough to forage for themselves; one of the factors contributing this is the poor quality of the forest on Dao Tien (du eot years of war, herbicidal spraying followed by selective logging up until 2007).  To remedy this we have built a large tree nursery where we can germinate fruit tree seeds and after 6 months transplant them into the forest.  The plan is each year to cut up to 3 hectares of bamboo/grassland on the island, and replace them with fruit trees  For this to be successful our team, with the help of volunteers, will have to manage the areas to stop bamboo growing back and smthering the new saplings until they are strong enough to compete.  This will be K Hoai's project, and anyone who has ever been to Dao Tien will understand that this makes perfect sence!
    
   

• Education workshop for the Phu Lap School, Cat Tien national Park Buffer Zone

  To help form stronger links with the local community, EAST, with the support of Cat Tien National Park, held its first School Workshop day at Dao Tien on Sunday 16th January.  This visit provided an opportunity to work with the school to identify ways that EAST can help and raise awareness of important environmental issues.  Many of them had never seen native wildlife up-close before and they loved watching the gibbons swinging in the trees of their semi-free enclosure.  The day also included a trip into the forest, talks about EAST and Cat Tien National Park and games (such as "Guess What Animal I Am", which was a fun way to practice English whilst wearing very un-cool paper hats!)
  
  This day was a huge success, and has led to the development of special lessons every Sunday with the students to increase their awareness of key conservation issues and to improve their English skills.
   

Stephanie, EAST Education Officer, explaining the work of Dao Tien to the School group

• Cuchi and Nha have their first baby

  At last Cuchi has had her baby, after looking huge for the last month and all ruffled.  The baby is big, strong and very beautiful with a full cover of hair, unusual for newborn gibbon babies.
   

Cuchi's new baby	Cuchi with her new baby

• Trang Bom, her journey so far!

  Trang Bom was rescued as a young female mid-way through her colour change, at the time her facial markings were quite peculiar and we thought maybe she was a northern species.  But DNA confirmed her as gabriellae and slowly as she completed her colour change she became more golden-cheeked. 
  
  Once Trang Bom was through her health checks she was introduced to Lee Lee, an 18 year old male.  Both had been kept in isolation for the majority of their lives and knew little about gibbon behaviour.  With slow introductions at the mesh they groomed nervously, but when given full access to each other the nerves would take over and it became chaotic and sometimes dangerous, as in unorganized play the large canines can get in the way.  After several months, although they always wanted to go together, Trang Bom was losing confidence and starting to keep away from Lee Lee.  It was decided that Lee Lee needed an older, steadier female to educate him, while Trang Bom possibly needed some little ones so she could be the boss and gain some confidence. 
   
  Two three-year-old gibbons, Nhee and Hien, were transferred from Wildlife at Risk, perfect for Trang Bom to fit in the role as big sister.  This worked well for a while, but as Trang Bom was going through sexual maturity she was erratic in behaviour, at times appearing quite confused whether to be big sister or mate to the young male gibbon Hien.  To complicate this Hien, although now only four, was singing the male song, something that normally only happens when older, but without an older male in the group he has taken on the male condition early.  In January Nhee was transferred to a group of other young female gibbons to have some fun, leaving Hien and Trang Bom with the chance to pair bond as normal young gibbons.

   
   

 
Trang Bom

• Looking for loris

  Volunteer Raphael Weniger from Germany is focusing on the rehabilitation of pygmy loris.  Raphael is working in the loris semi-free monitoring their sleep sites during the day to find any pattern and any behaviours that may increase their survival chances when returned to the wild.  Raphael also has to gain the weights of the loris, using suspended scales, making sure the loris are not overweight for release.
   
  

Raphael suspending his weighing platform