Name: Maui
Sex: Male
Born: December 8, 1990
Favorite food: He likes his baked sweet potatoes in the morning, but he will eat anything.
Favorite activity: Playing and wrestling with Speedy.

Maui came to IPPL in March 1997 with his parents Jade and Palu-Palu. The three of them reached IPPL from Maui Zoo, which was being closed due to its violations of the Animal Welfare Act. We heard from an IPPL supporter in Hawaii that Jade and Palu-Palu had been great parents.

When Maui became mature, we removed him from his parents (a process that would naturally happen in the wild) and tried to pair him with the tempestuous Michelle, a gibbon born to Arun Rangsi and Shanti. Although Maui had had a vasectomy, Maui and Michelle produced a “surprise” baby we named Courtney; we had Maui fixed a second time after that, since we don’t actively breed our animals (and we’ve had no more surprises). Courtney had to be hand-raised from infancy when her mother attacked her.

When Maui’s relationship with Michelle didn’t work (she bit him, too, badly enough to require stitches), we tried him out with Michelle’s younger sister Speedy in 2007/2008. After something of a bumpy start, they have settled down well. They enjoy playing and wrestling together on the roof of their wooden climbing tower, as well as spying on their gibbon neighbors. Maui likes to wait until all his neighbors are indoors for the night before going inside himself.