Student rescues abandoned baby gibbon

Naven Hon, an ecology and biodiversity Master's student, came across the infant gibbon last week at the Veun Sai-Siem Pang Conservation Area.

Based in the area to study a group of human-habituated Northern Buff Cheeked Gibbon, Mr Hon and his assistant noticed that the baby gibbon was alone, wild and not part of the habituated group.

The baby, believed to be one year old or less, was sheltered at the research station, fed on infant formula and kept warm in an insulated bag while Mr Hon looked for the mother.

Mr Hon alerted his supervisors, Dr Ken Ryan from Victoria's School of Biological Sciences and Dr Alison Behie from the Australian National University in Canberra, to his find, believing that the baby's mother may be injured or dead.

With the assistance of Conservation International and The Cambodian Forestry Administration, Mr Hon has now passed the infant to the Wildlife Alliance which will take the baby to Phnom Tamao, its wildlife rescue centre, where it can be cared for properly.

The Northern Buff Cheeked Gibbon is thought to be a highly endangered species which seems to be confined to a small range in southern Vietnam, southern Laos and north-eastern Cambodia.