Help Bring Wildlife Back to Angkor Forest

Our project to reintroduce wild animals into Angkor Archeological Park progresses well. Previously released gibbons and hornbills are well. And the past quarter was quite eventful as we brought more otters from Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC) to begin acclimatization, released the peafowl and hornbills, and gave a fourth pileated gibbon pair their freedom!

In November, we transferred 2 young female smooth-coated otters, born at PTWRC, into a new acclimatization cage constructed inside the large enclosure from which we previously released red muntjac and otters. Initially there was little contact from the 3 otters already released, but gradually the residents started taking an interest in the new arrivals. We have seen no aggression between the two groups, which bodes well for the day when we open the cage door. The young females have had very little contact with people and are wary – a good sign.

The Reintroduction Project Manager, Bunthoeun, and I felt that the great and wreathed hornbills and green peafowl that have been acclimatizing since May 2021 were ready for release, particularly as the great hornbills became very stressed whenever people approached their enclosure. On December 23 we opened the trap doors high on the sides of the two enclosures for the hornbills to leave and opened the main doors for the peafowl to make their exit. Gradually all the birds left. As always, we continue to place food for them, in baskets high in the surrounding trees for the hornbills and on the ground for the peafowl. They return singly to feed, but it does not look like they all come back every day, so to some extent they must be finding their own food in the forest. Now and again we receive reports of a wreathed or great hornbill flying over Angkor Wat and the peafowl are sometimes seen from the road. All has gone well so far. The day after the birds’ release the Angkor Centre for the Conservation of Biodiversity brought another 4 green peafowl bred at their Centre for release. These peafowl were extremely nervous and would have fared poorly inside an enclosure. We hard-released them at Lake Santamea, a wild and less visited site within Angkor Thom. They left immediately and have not been seen again, although peafowl calls are now heard from time to time in the forest.

We recaptured Ping-peeung, the first gibbon to be born in Angkor and now adult, one year ago when she left her parents, Baray and Saranick, and entered a village. We placed her in a release enclosure at Takao Gate with male Bakheng, who had been transferred from PTWRC, and the two settled down well together. It was time for Ping-peeung to have another chance at life in the forest, so on December 23 we opened the enclosure door. She left almost immediately, but Bakheng, having been born in captivity, was extremely hesitant. He left the enclosure through the roof trap door, only to return again almost immediately. We placed food outside the enclosure, adjacent to the roof. Bakheng went to feed, but quickly re-entered the cage once he had eaten. This went on for days. Ping-peeung loitered around in the branches above, clearly waiting for the much younger male to join her. How sweet! But she also travelled and the keepers did not see her at feed time on some days, which caused us a little concern. Would she get bored and travel outside the forest again in search of another mate? Bakheng was clearly apprehensive and also uncertain of his own abilities in the trees – a skill that can only come with practice. I am always a little apprehensive when we release the animals we have been caring for, as many things can go wrong. When we first released Tevy, also born in a cage at PTWRC, she was travelling through the branches in Angkor when one she was swinging on broke and she plummeted earthwards. Had she not grabbed a small sapling one meter before she hit the ground, broken bones were a certainty! I need not have worried for Bakheng. He finally left the enclosure to join Ping-peeung in the tree tops and he is getting around fine.

Check out footage from these bird and gibbon releases here. With great hornbills, wreathed hornbills, green peafowl, and a fourth pair of Endangered pileated gibbons now enjoying the freedom of the forest in Angkor, 2022 is off to an excellent start! Your generous donations make it possible to rebuild wildlife populations in Angkor, a long-term endeavor that will have enduring impacts. Thank you so much for your support.

Links:

• Video of gibbon, hornbill and peafowl releases

The third gibbon pair released in Angkor, Borey and Pompoy, had their first baby in September! In keeping with the theme of naming gibbons wild-born in Angkor after insect species, the new baby was christened Mey-ambaugh (butterfly in Khmer). It’s hard to get good photos of the little one, who is always clinging to mother Pompoy, but another shot is included below. Mey-ambaugh is the 7th gibbon born in Angkor, and the newest branch of this gibbon family tree. Not much to say so far about the baby, but we can share the fascinating story of Mey-ambaugh’s maternal grandfather.

All of the pileated gibbon pairs released in Angkor come from Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre and were either rescued from the illegal wildlife trade or born at Phnom Tamao to rescued parents. In 2006 (I think it was) a pair of adult pileated gibbons were rescued and brought to the Centre. They had been hand-raised, so were humanized and could never be released. The pair arrived together, and got on extremely well and there was no reason to split them up. After completing quarantine, we moved them to a large, natural enclosure. Unfortunately, shortly after the move the male broke his arm extremely badly. Back then, the veterinary department at Phnom Tamao was not equipped to treat such a bad injury so we transported him to a private veterinary clinic in Phnom Penh, where Dr. Arnau Demarti operated to pin the damaged limb. We then returned him to the Quarantine section for care and surveillance and christened him Pompoi (yes, the same name his daughter would one day be given, just spelled differently).

Unfortunately, the fracture was serious, there was little intact skin to work with, and the stitches broke open repeatedly during the ensuing months. Each time we returned Pompoi to the clinic and the wound was re-stitched, only to tear open again almost immediately following his return to Phnom Tamao. Pompoi was kept on antibiotics to guard against infection and had to be recaptured frequently to re-suture his wounds. This happened so often that he ultimately ceased to even resist the net as it descended over his head. Finally, Dr. Arnau suggested we amputate the arm as there was not enough skin for the injury to heal properly. I thought long and hard about this. I did not want to proceed – a one-armed gibbon would be seriously handicapped! Instead, I suggested that the vet suture the skin, but leave the steel pin external, allowing the skin to heal underneath it. Dr. Arnau did not like the idea, understandably feeling that this would leave an entry point for infection. However, he did as I requested and we returned Pompoi to Quarantine.

In 2007, the Cambodian Forestry Administration, which is the government agency responsible for managing Phnom Tamao, suddenly ‘ceased cooperation with Nick Marx’ and my Care for Rescued Wildlife Program at the Centre was suspended. There is no need to go into detail, suffice to say exactly one year later I was invited to return. There was important work to be done, which had not been attended to in my absence. Among many other things, I wanted to find out what Pompoi was up to and how his arm had healed.

I was sad to learn that Pompoi’s original partner had been exchanged, passed to a menagerie with a dubious reputation in the UK. Pompoi was still in the Quarantine section, and while his arm still had the pin outside the skin it was scarcely visible now, mostly covered with thick black fur, and seemed to have healed completely! A friend of mine who is a veterinary surgeon was visiting Cambodia at the time and had brought a portable x-ray machine. He x-rayed Pompoi’s arm and found that inside the bone had regrown and fused – around 3 centimeters – so we gently removed the pin.

Pompoi was taken to a larger enclosure in the Rehab section, into which visitors are not allowed, where all gibbons that are free from pathogens are housed, in the hope that in the future either they or their offspring might be able to be released. Pompoi had not been there for very long, when he managed to break his arm again! The injury was less serious this time, we repaired it and built a modified, lower enclosure for him in the hope that he would be less able to damage himself. We paired him up with a new female and they bonded.

Time passed and in 2013 we began this project to reintroduce gibbons to Angkor. Two years later, Pompoi and his mate produced a baby girl, which they cared for well, and we named Pompoy after her father. Pompoi was hand-raised by the people before he was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and so is very comfortable with humans. However, his daughter, Pompoy, was naturally raised by her own mother and grew up more fearful of people, making her suitable for release.

Then, in early 2018, we needed to select a new pair of gibbons to release in Angkor. Pompoy, although a little young for immediate release, seemed a perfect candidate. She was paired with a male gibbon of around the same age, Borey, and they shared an enclosure at Phnom Tamao. In November 2018, the pair were transported to Angkor to acclimatize at their release site near Takao Gate. We released them in July of last year. Now they are the proud parents of a two-month old baby gibbon, born in the ancient forests of Angkor. Mey-Ambaugh will grow up swinging through the trees and, when adult, we hope will produce Pompoi’s great-gandchildren, continuing to expand Angkor’s gibbon population.

The process of reintroducing gibbons to Angkor is long and your donations help make this work possible. Thank you so much for your support.

Our year-end fundraising goal is to raise $600 towards the $4,000 cost of building another gibbon enclosure at a new release site in Angkor. If you plan to support us during this season, please consider making a donation on GivingTuesday – November 30 (from 00:01AM-11:59PM EST) – GlobalGiving will match all donations of up to $2,500 from their $1 Million Incentive Fund!!