Name: Robbie
Sex: Male
Born: January 20, 1994
Favorite food: Cantaloupe (but he’s a good eater in general).
Favorite activity: Stalking the food cart when he sees that his next meal is on the way.

Robbie was born at IPPL. His mother is E.T., who came to IPPL from a New York laboratory as a baby along with her elderly mom and dad, Penny and Blackie. When E.T. grew up, she was paired with Nicholas, a former zoo gibbon (who has since been successfully vasectomized).

Penny, who was living alongside E.T. at the time Robbie was born, adored babies and once actually kidnapped Baby Robbie from his own mother! Fortunately, we were eventually able to persuade her to relinquish the baby and return him to E.T.’s care.

Almost all of IPPL’s gibbons belong to the white-handed species, and both males and females come in a number of color phases, with body fur that varies from black to beige to blond; this color remains the same throughout each animal’s life. All members of this species, however, have white hands and feet and, to a greater or lesser extent, a white face ring. Robbie is a black color phase gibbon, but he has a distinctive tiny patch of white hairs on the top of his head.

Robbie now lives with Dianne, who is the daughter of IPPL’s Arun Rangsi and Shanti. She can be a little shy, but Robbie is more interactive. He often follows the route of the breakfast and lunch carts as they roll along the sidewalk below his aerial wire-mesh runway, and he comes down for food immediately. He also enjoys flipping the bills of baseball caps or the wide brims of floppy hats—but, fortunately, he never tries to grab the headgear away.