Name: Tong (her name means “gold” in Thai and reflects the color of her fur, but around IPPL she’s also known as Tiggy, Ting-Tong, etc.)     ADOPT ME!
Sex: Female
Born: 1970 (estimated)
Favorite food: Citrus fruits and anything sour, as well as all kinds of beans (including canned beans, string beans, crowder peas, etc.).
Favorite activity: Grooming and being groomed by her favorite human caregivers (especially ones with long hair).

Tong began her life as a wild-born gibbon in the forests of Vietnam around 1970. She was captured and sold as a pet to an American soldier, who took her with him when he moved to Thailand. When the serviceman returned to the U.S., Tong was left with servants who fed her an inadequate diet; as a result, she contracted rickets, a permanently deforming bone disease.

She then became the pet of an embassy employee in Bangkok, who asked Shirley to take care of Tong when the embassy worker was transferred out of the country. It was 1974, and Shirley had just founded IPPL the year before. Tong has been a part of the IPPL family ever since. She was soon paired with a handsome male by the name of Brownie, who sadly passed away in early 2008.

Tong is different from the other gibbons at the IPPL sanctuary, who are members of the white-handed gibbon species. She belongs to the “yellow-cheeked crested gibbon” species, and her coat color is reddish-gold, with a little patch of black on the top of her head. Her song is quite different from that of the other gibbons and ends with a lovely, bubbling trill. She is known for doing happy gibbon calls and somersaults whenever she sees special treats coming

Tong has always been very people-friendly. If she likes someone, she will not only accept grooming from that person but will groom her human friend in return, accepting him or her as an “honorary gibbon.”