Name: Palu-Palu (his name was suggested to us by a Hawaiian friend and means “softly-softly” in Hawaiian; it’s a somewhat ironic name for a gibbon, as all gibbon species are known for their loud calls, but at least it’s better than “Boy,” his original name)
Sex: Male
Born: Before 1980
Favorite food: Pineapples (he still loves them).
Favorite activity: Monitoring the IPPL office staff.

Palu-Palu reached IPPL in March 1996, along with his mate Jade and their son Maui, from the Maui Zoo. The veterinary inspector mandated by the Animal Welfare Act was unhappy at the terrible conditions under which the zoo had kept its animals, and animal protection groups on the island were demanding the place be shut down. When the facility finally closed its doors, Palu-Palu and his family came to IPPL, accompanied by several boxes of pineapples.

Palu-Palu has a very interesting backstory as the pet of a man named Sam Pryor, a former vice-president of Pan American airlines who had kept a number of gibbons. We learned that Palu-Palu was born in the wild and purchased by Pryor from a Japanese animal dealer. Palu-Palu and his previous mate had even had a baby, a male named Sammy who was born in 1980.

Pryor had actually asked IPPL to take his gibbons in the event of his death, which IPPL was happy to do, but apparently Pryor didn’t put down his wishes in writing. We found out later that, after Pryor’s death, Sammy was given to an employee who didn’t want the gibbon and turned Sammy over to the Maui Zoo. There, Sammy lived in bad conditions and developed dilated cardiomyopathy (probably from the Coxsackie-B virus). Sammy eventually got transferred to IPPL and lasted more than two years at here, until his untimely death in 1997.

Palu-Palu has been more fortunate. His son Maui has been placed with another female, but Palu-Palu is still doing fine as the long-time (though sometimes long-suffering) mate of assertive Jade. The two of them have access to an aerial mesh runway that runs alongside the windows looking over IPPL’s office. Palu-Palu especially enjoys sitting in this runway “supervising” the office staff and gets agitated if Jade (accidentally on purpose) sits precisely in his favorite viewing spot—although he is too in awe of her to elbow her out of the way.