On June 1st the OuTrop team and their families gathered to celebrate 10 years of our gibbon project.
When we first started 10 years ago, many researchers said it would be impossible to follow gibbons in a peat-swamp forest. It was hard at first, the gibbons were always running away, we got 10 minutes of data if we were lucky! But, eventually the gibbons accepted us and the rest is history!
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| OuTrop team and their families gathered together to celebrate. Photo by Joana Aragay/OuTrop |
We are the second longest full-time wild gibbon research and conservation project in the world (the longest running is in Thailand). We have contributed a great deal of new knowledge, information and expertise over the years in gibbon behaviour, gibbon ecology, social behaviour, population trends and density as well as contributing to regional and national action plans for gibbons in Indonesia and across Asia.
On the day of the party, we celebrated with games, food, cake and speeches by Dr Susan Cheyne (OuTrop’s Director of Gibbon Research), Azis K (Gibbon Project Coordinator) and others who talked about how proud they are to be part of this amazing work.
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| Fun games for all members of the OuTrop family. Photo by Joana Aragay/OuTrop |
It is a wonderful coincidence that OuTrop’s gibbon anniversary also falls in the IUCN Year of the Gibbon 2015. Thank you to all who have supported our gibbon project and here’s to the next decade of helping conserve these amazing singing, swinging apes!
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| Anniversary cake! Photo by Joana Aragay/OuTrop |
