To combat trafficking in Gibbons, experts investigate what is sought

by Ana Norman Bermudez

• As gibbon trafficking reaches record highs, conservationists say reducing demand is critical to combating the illegal trade.
• But motivations for wanting to buy a gibbon vary widely among buyer communities, which means solutions must be tailored accordingly, experts say.
• A survey of people who voluntarily surrendered gibbons to a sanctuary in Malaysia found that most cited a love of animals or a desire to have an animal for their children to play with as motivation.
• In India, by contrast, a sanctuary manager says gibbons are coveted as status symbols, and most end up at the center through confiscation rather than voluntary surrender.

“When we first got Jay, we thought he was a monkey,” Esther says.

A hunter came to his village on the island of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sabah to sell wild meat. She showed Esther (not her real name) and her husband a week-old primate with long arms, dark skin and big, round eyes. Fearing that the animal might otherwise be killed for food, he decided to take it home. Later he realized that Jay was not a monkey but a gibbon.

Gibbons are small apes, more closely related to chimpanzees and humans than monkeys. Throughout their range in South and Southeast Asia, they are increasingly threatened Exotic pet trade. Demand, despite laws prohibiting their capture, sale and ownership pet gibbon Illegal trade in wild-caught animals continues, much of which now takes place online.

In 2025, gibbon trafficking seizures reached an all-time high, with 336 individual gibbons seized between January and August alone, nearly 20% of all records since 2016, according to a Analysis By monitoring network traffic in wildlife trade. Because gibbons are highly social animals and will protect their young until death, the capture of a baby gibbon often represents the destruction of an entire family group.

Between 2016 and August 2025, more than 200 seizures were recorded, but “in reality, the trade-off is probably much larger,” says Elizabeth John of TRAFFIC. While Indonesia and Vietnam have historically dominated the trade, India and Malaysia have emerged as important countries in recent years. Most of the cases, John said, appear to have taken place locally, with only 29 seizures involving international smuggling attempts during the period – although this may also reflect animals seized earlier in the trade chain before reaching the border.

Why do people buy gibbons?

“Primates have always fascinated people,” John says, and gibbons are particularly interesting “because of their uniqueness and rarity.”

But demand and the factors that drive it differ across countries and over time, he says.

About a quarter of the cases recorded in the traffic analysis were voluntary surrenders rather than confiscations, an indication that some buyers did not fully understand what they were getting into.

The Gibbon Conservation Society, which operates rehabilitation centers in Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia, said most of the 40 gibbons rescued in recent years were voluntarily surrendered by their owners.

The profile of former owners varies widely, says founder Mariani “Bam” Ramli They span rural and urban settings, different age groups and genders, although they are more likely to come from higher income families. In most cases, they acquired their gibbons through informal networks or online. Two of the 40 gibbons were purchased to be raised for meat. The rest were taken as pets.

“Most of them say they love animals, or they want their kids to have an animal to play with,” Ramli says.

In some parts of India, the picture looks a little different. At the HURO Foundation, which rescues and rehabilitates western hulk gibbons (Hullok Hullok) in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya, nearly 90% of gibbons admitted since 2009 have come from confiscation.

HURO Foundation director Florian Magne describes two overlapping forms of demand: local capture and trade in rural areas, and an emerging market among wealthy urban buyers willing to pay significantly higher prices. These circuits can connect, with locally kept animals sometimes entering wider commercial networks.

Here, gibbons are often treated as status symbols. “They are seen as prestigious pets, attracting attention and conferring social status,” says Magne.

In recent years, Private zoo And collections owned by India’s elite have been linked to cases involving Rare and exotic primatesPointing to these institutions as a growing source of demand in both domestic and international trade networks

Online, influencer and social media content can Broaden the appeal To keep wild animals like gibbons as pets. In some places, these ideas are beginning to displace older cultural norms. For example, in the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya, there was once a traditional belief that harming or trapping a gibbon was a sin. “Unfortunately, these cultural beliefs are slowly disappearing,” says Magne.

When owners change their minds

When Esther brings Joy home, she is overjoyed at first. He responds to his name and plays with the family. “Every morning Joy used to sing,” she says. “He became my alarm.”

It was only after a relative pointed out that Joy was a gibbon — and keeping one was illegal under Malaysia’s wildlife laws — that she began to reconsider. “From the moment I found out, I wanted to leave him,” she says.

Eventually, he decided to take Joy to the Gibbon Conservation Society’s center in Sabah.

Only two individuals who surrendered gibbons to the Gibbon Conservation Society were cited for fear of legal consequences. In Malaysia, enforcement and public awareness are relatively weak, says Ramli, adding that gibbons are often high-profile species such as orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) Meanwhile, Magne says that in Meghalaya, administrative corruption and enforcement loopholes mean fear of the law is rarely a deterrent.

Often, owners give up pet gibbons because they can no longer cope. As wild animals, gibbons become increasingly difficult to handle as they mature. Many people who bring gibbons to the Gibbon Conservation Society also say they want the animals returned to the wild. In practice, it is notoriously difficult to return captive gibbons to the wild. successful Release Years of rehabilitation and careful site selection are required, and not always possible.

Social media analyzes suggest that exotic pet content often spreads misinformation, presenting gibbons as cute and manageable pets and obscuring information about the practical and ethical implications of keeping wild animals at home.

variable behavior

Reducing demand is “absolutely critical” to combating the illegal gibbon trade, said Susan Chain, vice chair of the small apes section of the global wildlife conservation authority IUCN. But what works depends on why people are buying Gibbons in the first place.

For long-term change, says Elizabeth John of TRAFFIC, what’s still missing is a clearer picture of shoppers and their motivations. “We need a thorough study of pet buyers in specific locations where demand is highest or growing,” she says.

Guidelines developed by TRAFFIC for countries that have signed CITES, the treaty on international wildlife trade, emphasize that the design of interventions should be based on an understanding of target audiences and behaviour. Where lack of awareness is the primary problem, dissemination of information may be sufficient. Where keeping a gibbon is tied to status or identity, social norms may need to change.

In reality, demand reduction efforts are still evolving. The Gibbon Conservation Society runs public education programs and has helped shut down exotic pet accounts on social media in Malaysia through targeted campaigns. Chain points to Gibbonsia, as a promising example, combining online outreach with on-the-ground work to change public attitudes. The message, she says, should be clear: “Keep the gibbons wild.”

---

Quote:

Moloney, GK, Tuke, J., Dal Grande, E., Nielsen, T., & Chaber, A. (2021). Is YouTube promoting the exotic pet trade? An Analysis of Global Public Perceptions of Popular YouTube Videos Featuring Scary Exotic Animals Plus one, 16(4), e0235451. Do:10.1371/journal.pone.0235451

Feedback: Use this form Send a message to the editor responsible for this story. If you would like to post a public comment, you can do so at the bottom of the page

–

Previously published with news.mongabay Creative Commons Attribution

***