In early 2020, German veterinarian and author, Hannah Emde from Nepada Wildlife was among a team of vets who found an infant North Bornean Gibbon alone in the Tawau Hill Park, Sabah. The infant, later named Noir, was no more than 2 months old and was lying on the ground screaming. How Noir got there, no one knows. Knowing the two gibbon families in the park, Hannah and the others resolved to wait until evening for the parents to return. But as it grew dark, they knew there was no chance of finding Noir’s family that same day. They then had to keep him warm, fed and ultimately alive – as baby gibbons are fragile. As Hannah cared for him and tried to find his family, she found us and got in touch with Mariani Ramli (Bam). Noir, being of a species native to borneo could not be brought over to GReP in Pahang, and so the ideas for the Borneo Gibbon Rehabilitation Project was born. 

Noir’s story is one that’s rare. Gibbons, who live in close, loving family units like humans, would never just abandon their baby. However, there are many others displaced by deforestation or victimised by the illegal pet trade, who like Noir, need help and a hopeful future. Borneo GReP will give them a second life and a chance to return to their forest homes.