Traveling with kids isn’t only about showing them beautiful places and having fun. It’s also an opportunity to help them understand more about the world around them.
And sometimes that means showing them the problems too.
During our family trip to Thailand in 2017, we visited the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Phuket, where we learned about the devastating effects that the pet trade and wildlife tourism have had on gibbons in Thailand.
This visit became especially meaningful to us because, during that same trip, we were beginning to question some of our own choices involving animal tourism. We were learning too.
At the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, instead of touching or interacting with wild animals, our kids learned why these gibbons needed to be rescued in the first place and what it takes to give some of them a second chance at life in the wild.
Where Is the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Phuket?
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project is located near Bang Pae Waterfall in the Khao Phra Thaew forest area, in northeastern Phuket.
The project was established in 1992 with the goal of finding a way to rehabilitate white-handed gibbons that had spent their lives in captivity and, when possible, return them to their natural habitat.
Gibbons had been poached to extinction in Phuket’s remaining rainforest, largely because of demand for wild animals as pets and tourist attractions.
The project wasn’t simply rescuing individual animals. It was trying to bring gibbons back to a forest where they had disappeared.
More than 30 years later, the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project is still working to rescue, rehabilitate and reintroduce gibbons, and its reintroduction work has expanded beyond Phuket to another release site in northern Thailand.
Why Are Gibbons Taken From the Wild?
This was one of the hardest things for us to learn during our visit.
Baby gibbons are the ones people want for pets and tourist attractions because they’re small and cute. But a baby gibbon spends its first years closely attached to its mother. That means taking a baby from the wild isn’t as simple as someone finding a baby gibbon sitting alone in a tree. The adults protecting that baby may be killed in the process of capturing it.
Then another problem develops as the baby grows. A cute little gibbon eventually becomes a powerful adult wild animal. As gibbons mature, they become much more difficult for people to handle, and animals that were once used as pets or tourist attractions can end up abandoned, confined or severely mistreated.
This is why something that might seem harmless to a tourist, paying to hold or take a photograph with a cute baby wild animal, can contribute to a much bigger problem.
That was an important lesson for all of us.
What Happens to a Rescued Gibbon?
Getting a rescued gibbon back into the forest isn’t as simple as opening a cage and letting it go. Many of these animals have spent years around humans and may have suffered physical injuries or psychological trauma.
When a gibbon arrives at the project, its health has to be assessed. The rehabilitation process can then take years as the team tries to encourage the behaviors the gibbon would need to survive independently. They need to learn or relearn how to move naturally through the trees, find and eat appropriate foods, socialize with other gibbons and live with as little dependence on humans as possible.
The ultimate goal is freedom.
But unfortunately, not every rescued gibbon can return to the wild. Some have suffered injuries or trauma so severe that they need lifelong care.
Meeting the Gibbons at Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Phuket
The gibbons we saw were kept in large enclosures, with some positioned close enough to other gibbons to allow social interaction.
And then we heard something I’ll never forget.
The gibbons started singing!
Gibbons are famous for their incredibly loud and distinctive calls, and we were lucky enough to hear them while we were there. It was LOUD!
Each enclosure also had information about the individual gibbon living there, which allowed the kids to learn their names and understand their stories.
Suddenly, we weren’t simply looking at “gibbons.”
Each one had a history.
And some of those histories were heartbreaking.
Tam’s Story
One of the gibbons we learned about was Tam.
Tam had suffered horrific mistreatment while in captivity and eventually required amputations. She would never be able to return to the wild.
Her story was difficult to read, especially with the kids standing there looking at her. But I think that’s part of why places like this can be so important.
It’s easy to tell children that wild animals shouldn’t be kept as pets. It’s completely different when they can see the consequences.
Tam wasn’t a character in a book. She was right there. And her injuries couldn’t be undone.
Bo’s Story
Another story that stayed with us was Bo.
Bo had gone through rehabilitation and had been paired with a female named Lek. They eventually had a baby and were released into the wild. But Bo kept returning to the rehabilitation center. Again and again.
Eventually, the team realized that although they had done everything possible to prepare him, Bo simply wasn’t able to adapt to permanent life in the wild.
His story showed us something else about wildlife rehabilitation: Not every rescue has a perfect ending.
The goal might be to return an animal to nature, but the animal’s welfare has to come first.
What made Bo’s story especially interesting was that the next generation had a different outcome. His family continued in the wild, showing how one rehabilitation effort can potentially have an impact far beyond a single animal.
Gibby Came Home With Us
For respect of the animals, I decided not to photograph the real gibbons during our visit.
Instead, one gibbon came home with us.
Well…a stuffed one!
We made a donation to the project and bought a toy gibbon and a few other items to help support their work.
The kids named our new stuffed gibbon Gibby, after one of the gibbons we’d learned about at the center.
And they couldn’t stop talking about him!
Sometimes that’s how you know an experience has really reached your kids.
They don’t stop asking questions once you leave.
Combining Our Visit With Bang Pae Waterfall
Since the project is located near Bang Pae Waterfall, we also spent some time exploring the surrounding area.
The forest itself was beautiful, and combining the waterfall with our visit made this feel less like visiting an attraction and much more like a day learning about the environment these animals belong in.
After hearing the gibbons calling from their enclosures, it was easy to imagine how incredible it must be to hear that same song coming from gibbons living freely in the forest.
Visiting the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Today
Our visit took place in 2017, and the visitor experience has changed since then.
Today, you shouldn’t simply arrive expecting to walk around the project as we did.
Visits to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Phuket are currently offered through pre-booked educational learning sessions. The project limits the number of visitors and deliberately minimizes human contact with the gibbons, which is exactly what you would hope to see from an organization preparing wild animals for possible release.
If you’re planning to visit, check the project’s current schedule and book directly before making the trip.
How Can You Help the Gibbons?
One of the easiest things travelers can do costs absolutely nothing: Don’t pay for photographs or interactions with gibbons being used as tourist attractions.
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project specifically works to reduce demand for the illegal use of gibbons in tourism and as pets.
You can also support the project through donations, sponsorships, purchases and other programs offered directly by the organization.
And perhaps most importantly, you can talk about what you’ve learned.
That’s one of the reasons I’m keeping this story on our blog all these years later.
What This Experience Taught Our Family
When I originally wrote about the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project in 2017, I ended by saying how much respect we had for the people dedicating their time to these animals.
I still feel that way.
But looking back, I also realize how important this trip to Thailand was in shaping the way our family would approach wildlife experiences during our future travels.
We didn’t start traveling with all the answers. We made choices, learned from them, asked questions and changed the way we did things.
Visiting the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project showed our kids that loving animals doesn’t necessarily mean touching them, holding them or getting the perfect photograph with them.
Sometimes loving an animal means keeping your distance.
Sometimes it means helping repair the damage humans have already caused.
And sometimes the best possible outcome is simply hearing their song coming from the forest where they belong.
Check out the lovely hotel we stayed at Seapines Villa Liberg!!!
Continue the journey with:
If you are planning a trip to Asia, these unique destinations should definitely be on your radar:
- Brunei: The Family Trip That Became a Girls’ Adventure
- 5 Days in Hong Kong: What We Did, What We Missed, and Why That’s Perfectly Okay
- A Family Journey Through India
- Phuket With Kids: Our Amazing First Family Adventure in Thailand
- Discovering Cambodia: From Phnom Penh to the Magic of Siem Reap with Kids
- Visiting Bhutan with Kids: Inside the Magical Kingdom of Bhutan
I hope our experience helps you plan an unforgettable Asia adventure of your own!
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