Todd Borgie reporting from Phukett, Thailand: The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project   The island of Phuket, Thailand, used to have the song of the gibbons echoing through its forests, but now this song is seldom heard. Gibbons are apes, (apes are sometimes confused with monkeys, but unlike their smaller primate counterparts, apes do not have tails, and their arms are usually longer than their legs) which live in South East Asia. The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project works primarily with white-handed gibbons, but there are eight other species of gibbons found in South East Asia.   Unfortunately, the gibbon population has been under attack here in Phuket for quite sometime. Not only is their habitat being destroyed, but, what is worse is that many of the gibbons have been kidnapped and dragged into bars and tourist attractions. Until recently, it was not uncommon to see a gibbon chained to a bar, or caged near a restaurant. They were often forced to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, so someone could take a crazy-looking picture.  Often they would be injected with drugs to keep them awake and passive, so they would not attack people who looking at them or taking their photograph. To obtain a gibbon from the wild, hunters would have to go into the forest and find a gibbon family. Gibbons mate for life, so the families travel together. The hunters would have to shoot the parents of a baby gibbon in order to capture their prize. These young gibbons would remain chained or caged their entire lives, spending their hours as tourist attractions or household pets. The problem is that these animals are very strong, and probably a bit mad about being chained up, so they become mean, aggressive and quite dangerous.  Now it is illegal to own a gibbon or have one as a pet, although some people still have them. The Gibbon rehabilitation project seeks to take these creatures, nurse them back to health, and re-introduce them into the national park in Phuket. To date, they have successfully released two families. In the upcoming years, they hope to re-introduce up to 60 different families into the park.  A lot goes on at the Gibbon rehabilitation project. When gibbons come in, they are often infected with herpes or hepatitis. Since gibbons are so much like humans, they can contract human diseases, and these can be devastating. Gibbons contract these diseases from being forced to drink out of someone’s glass, or sharing a cigarette. To protect gibbons already at the project from these diseases, new gibbons must first go into quarantine until they are healthy enough to be introduced to other gibbons. After receiving a clean bill of health, they have to be put on a regular diet of forest food and pick new friends. Gibbons are like people when it comes to mating and making friends. Certain gibbons will like each other, and others won’t.  The volunteers try to play matchmaker; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Gibbons have complicated ways of getting to know one other, so special cages have to be used to introduce one gibbon to another. Once they become friends, they can share cages, but if they are not friends, they will fight viciously. Volunteers run the Gibbon Rehabilitation project, with 12 currently working at the project.  A typical day for volunteers follows:  6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., feeding time for the gibbons, vegetables and leaves ( you should hear them sing, it is amazing! Break 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., clean cages 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., observation 12:30 p.m., lunch for the gibbons, fruits.  Volunteers are generally finished about 2:00 p.m.; however, they never do the same thing day after day. Other jobs include working at the information booth, or doing observations in the forest (watching the reintroduced families, how they are, and what they prefer to eat, etc.).  Volunteers are also required to work in quarantine areas.  There are a lot of volunteer to projects to work on around the world. Some are working with humans, others with wildlife, and some are focused on conservation. If you have an interest in a certain subject matter, do a web search on it and see how you can get involved. There are plenty of things to learn and plenty of places that could use your help. At the Gibbon rehabilitation center, the 12 volunteers remain pretty busy!