Nakola the Silvery Gibbon: Update from Indonesia

December 2007

Dr. Karmele Llano Sanchez, Veterinarian, International Animal Rescue, Indonesia

In the September 2007 issue of IPPL News, we introduced readers to Nakola, a silvery gibbon living at the Cikananga Rescue Center in Malang on the island of Java. The silvery gibbon is also known as the Javan or moloch gibbon. The sanctuary had lost most of its funding when its major supporter, the Gibbon Foundation, was unable to continue helping the project. Help was needed.

When IPPL heard of the situation, we immediately sent an emergency grant of $2,000 to International Animal Rescue (IAR), which was helping care for many of the center’s primates and was especially concerned about a handicapped silvery gibbon named Nakola. IPPL members responded generously to the appeal for help for Nakola and IPPL-UK kindly sent a donation.

At the time of the September profile of Nakola, we thought the gibbon was a female, as the animal was so small and undeveloped. But IAR veterinarian Dr. Sanchez figured out that “she” is actually a “he.” She sent us this update on this precious little ape.

Nakola is a poor male silvery gibbon who looks like a female. His entire body has been deformed by rickets, a bone disease he developed while he was being kept as a pet: his spine is twisted, his limbs are extremely thin, even his testicles are underdeveloped.

Wildlife pet owners here in Indonesia are typically upper-class people who are attracted by wild animal pets as symbols of power and prestige. Most of these owners have no clue about the normal diet, or even the species names, of the animals they can buy at any open-air “bird market” in Jakarta. The new owners of a captive ape or monkey often feed their pets totally inappropriate diets that include soft drinks and rice—and are very much lacking in good sources of protein or vitamins. In addition, these primate pets are often housed indoors. All primates need sunlight in order to obtain vitamin D. They also need some calcium in their diet to maintain their bones. Without sunlight and calcium, the bones become insufficiently mineralized, and as a result they don’t develop their normal shape. They are also fragile and weak. This is what happened to Nakola: not only are his bones deformed, but he is missing several toes, probably because of an unhealed fracture. In addition, he developed flaky skin due to a lack of sunlight and companions to groom him.

After Nakola was rescued by the Indonesian forestry authorities, he was brought to the Cikananga Rescue Center. Keeping a protected animal (like a gibbon) at home is a crime in Indonesia. Although law enforcement is poor, animals are sometimes confiscated. In addition, owners who no longer want to keep their pets will turn unwanted animals in. When Nakola arrived, he was placed “temporarily” in a fairly small cage; he had to be kept alone because of his medical problems.

Now, however, thanks to IPPL, Nakola is finally in a larger enclosure. To the astonishment of everyone at Cikananga, Nakola—with his fragile legs and arms that look like steel pins— has become much more active, climbing up and down in his cage. He also enjoys sunbathing and always appreciates being groomed by anyone who passes by and has a moment to spare. Despite having plenty of reasons to be aggressive towards humans, he is actually the sweetest gibbon at Cikananga. He smiles as I have never seen him smile before. Gibbons have wonderful smiles: they extend their lips upwards and utter squeaking “Ee-Ee” sounds. His skin problem has cleared up, and he is a much, much happier gibbon.

Now we are hoping that, with this extra help from IPPL, we can move all of Cikananga’s silvery gibbons to the Javan Gibbon Centre, located just inside of the Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park in Java; the facility is a collaborative venture of the Silvery Gibbon Project and the Javan Gibbon Foundation. According to our colleagues at the Javan Gibbon Centre, there is already a suitable companion awaiting Nakola, another gibbon with the same handicaps, who also is not a candidate for release. We hope to make this match possible. We are sure that this will be the best place for Nakola.

But in the meantime Nakola is enjoying his bigger cage and is feeling very happy as he enjoys the warmth of the sun. Thank you, dear IPPL members, for making this possible.