(Story from Saturday June 7, 2008)
Because those who had built the cage had not
found it necessary to give it a door Karmele decided to sedate Robin and then break the cage down. She told me she would wait until he offered her his hand, which he often did when people approached. Then she would inject him with the sedative. She requested that I wait around the corner until she had his hand as Gibbons are very sensitive and the presence of many people would alert him that something was going on. She said she would call me when she had his hand.
I waited with my camera on. She came back and said “Sorry! I already did it!” Once she had his hand she decided to administer the anesthetic quickly because after a failed attempt he might be very difficult to calm. I didn’t want Robin to experience any more stress than necessary so that was fine with me. I filmed him as his eyes glazed over and he slowly collapsed to the floor of his cage.
In fact administering the anesthetic had been no problem at all and he hadn’t even pulled away. He then reached out to people immediately afterward with little sign of fear or stress.
The keepers quickly ripped one of the walls away and Karmele carried him into the clinic for a quick examination.
He was found to be in fairly good condition although very skinny. There had been other examples of Gibbons being held in cages so small the joints couldn’t properly develop or where calcium deficiencies caused horrible deformities.
He was then moved to an aluminum transport cage to wake up. I hesitated as long as possible to give my reserve batteries the chance to charge and when Karmele
said let’s go and we loaded the aluminum cage into the mini-van to take Robin to the Javan Gibbon Center.
First we drove into the city of Bogor, then we took the highway North East, then on to smaller roads up to somewhat higher ground and we stopped at the gates of a resort situated at the edge of a National Park. From here we transfer to a 4x4 truck. The cage with Robin goes in the back of the canvass covered pickup and Karmele, Argito, Karthi and Kim sit on bench seats on either side. I follow in a smaller two seater 4x4 so I can film.
We drive up through the resort and some farm land and then turn on to a narrow rutted track leading up into the hills. The road here gets so bumpy that I was usually either filming the floorboards or the ceiling and when I could focus for a moment or two to look through the windshield it was smeared with dust.
After a circa 30 minute drive we halted and the driver turned the pickup around and
backed it up to the beginning of a foot path. One of the workers from the Javan Gibbon Center single-handedly lifted the aluminum cage with Robin in it onto his shoulders and we trekked through the forest to the Center.
The Center is situated in natural Gibbon habitat and captive Gibbons can hear the calls of their free roaming kin. The Center’s mission is to rehabilitate and socialize the Gibbons so that they can be reintroduced to the wild.
For that purpose there are several stations, including quarantine, where Robin will have to spend his first 30 days, socialization cages where the Gibbons are introduced to each other in controlled circumstances, first having visual contact between separated cages, then contact with a barrier and finally sharing a cage, and lastly enclosures placed away from the center built around trees in the forest where the Gibbons can express their natural behavior in as close a simulation to the wild as possible before they are actually freed. A caged wild animal exists in a very unnatural setting which restricts and determines it’s behavior and it’s no different here for the Gibbons at the center. Here,
however, they are on track to freedom and that makes all the difference. It is necessary to prepare them for living in the wild to first go through the sequential stages, starting with quarantine to make sure that newcomers don’t spread disease to the population, moving on to socialization so that they develop the necessary relationships and behavior to naturally cooperate with their own kind and finally the last stage where they can practice being wild Gibbons 
and the workers at the Center can observe and make the decision that the Gibbons are ready for freedom.
After years in captivity, most likely having spent their entire lives in cages which restrict their natural movement to next to nothing, it’s actually amazing that an animal could ever reach the point where they could survive in the wild. Watching the Gibbons here though as they swing elegantly through their large enclosures, performing feats of balance and
acrobatics far exceeding the most accomplished human gymnast, I was convinced they had a fighting chance and that is, I feel, what everyone at the barest minimum deserves.
Because those who had built the cage had not
found it necessary to give it a door Karmele decided to sedate Robin and then break the cage down. She told me she would wait until he offered her his hand, which he often did when people approached. Then she would inject him with the sedative. She requested that I wait around the corner until she had his hand as Gibbons are very sensitive and the presence of many people would alert him that something was going on. She said she would call me when she had his hand.I waited with my camera on. She came back and said “Sorry! I already did it!” Once she had his hand she decided to administer the anesthetic quickly because after a failed attempt he might be very difficult to calm. I didn’t want Robin to experience any more stress than necessary so that was fine with me. I filmed him as his eyes glazed over and he slowly collapsed to the floor of his cage.
In fact administering the anesthetic had been no problem at all and he hadn’t even pulled away. He then reached out to people immediately afterward with little sign of fear or stress.
The keepers quickly ripped one of the walls away and Karmele carried him into the clinic for a quick examination.
He was found to be in fairly good condition although very skinny. There had been other examples of Gibbons being held in cages so small the joints couldn’t properly develop or where calcium deficiencies caused horrible deformities.He was then moved to an aluminum transport cage to wake up. I hesitated as long as possible to give my reserve batteries the chance to charge and when Karmele
said let’s go and we loaded the aluminum cage into the mini-van to take Robin to the Javan Gibbon Center.First we drove into the city of Bogor, then we took the highway North East, then on to smaller roads up to somewhat higher ground and we stopped at the gates of a resort situated at the edge of a National Park. From here we transfer to a 4x4 truck. The cage with Robin goes in the back of the canvass covered pickup and Karmele, Argito, Karthi and Kim sit on bench seats on either side. I follow in a smaller two seater 4x4 so I can film.
We drive up through the resort and some farm land and then turn on to a narrow rutted track leading up into the hills. The road here gets so bumpy that I was usually either filming the floorboards or the ceiling and when I could focus for a moment or two to look through the windshield it was smeared with dust.After a circa 30 minute drive we halted and the driver turned the pickup around and
backed it up to the beginning of a foot path. One of the workers from the Javan Gibbon Center single-handedly lifted the aluminum cage with Robin in it onto his shoulders and we trekked through the forest to the Center.The Center is situated in natural Gibbon habitat and captive Gibbons can hear the calls of their free roaming kin. The Center’s mission is to rehabilitate and socialize the Gibbons so that they can be reintroduced to the wild.
For that purpose there are several stations, including quarantine, where Robin will have to spend his first 30 days, socialization cages where the Gibbons are introduced to each other in controlled circumstances, first having visual contact between separated cages, then contact with a barrier and finally sharing a cage, and lastly enclosures placed away from the center built around trees in the forest where the Gibbons can express their natural behavior in as close a simulation to the wild as possible before they are actually freed. A caged wild animal exists in a very unnatural setting which restricts and determines it’s behavior and it’s no different here for the Gibbons at the center. Here,
however, they are on track to freedom and that makes all the difference. It is necessary to prepare them for living in the wild to first go through the sequential stages, starting with quarantine to make sure that newcomers don’t spread disease to the population, moving on to socialization so that they develop the necessary relationships and behavior to naturally cooperate with their own kind and finally the last stage where they can practice being wild Gibbons 
and the workers at the Center can observe and make the decision that the Gibbons are ready for freedom.After years in captivity, most likely having spent their entire lives in cages which restrict their natural movement to next to nothing, it’s actually amazing that an animal could ever reach the point where they could survive in the wild. Watching the Gibbons here though as they swing elegantly through their large enclosures, performing feats of balance and
acrobatics far exceeding the most accomplished human gymnast, I was convinced they had a fighting chance and that is, I feel, what everyone at the barest minimum deserves.
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