Susan Cheyne: Gibbon Diary June 2008 – Dave Smith, Susan Cheyne and Lindy Thompson

Dave Smith - Chun Li and Brandon Lee3 - 13_07_08

New gibbon behaviour team member
We are pleased to welcome Lindy Thompson to the Gibbon Behaviour Team. Lindy hails from South Africa and will be taking over from Dave when he returns to chilly UK at the end of July.

Ranging issues and infants
Since the dry season has begun, we have noticed that the gibbons are travelling and ranging outside their classic territorial areas. Additionally, we have noticed that Cokolat from Group C is still pregnant. She was heavily pregnant in March 2008 and it is strange that she is still so large.

After some careful searching and following of the gibbons we have now gathered more photos of infant gibbons and their mothers and we now realise that we misidentified the baby from the photo posted in May. Cokolat does not have an infant; the photo posted in May was in fact of the new Karate infant, named Brandon Lee.

Feeding ecology
Foodstuffs include less fruit and more flower and leaf material, especially as the month has drawn on, reflecting the seasonality of the forest productivity. They include: Jambu Jambu (Syzygium havilandii), Bajaka balayan (Artobotrys suaveolins), Lilin Lilin (Parartocarpus venenosus), Lunuk Buhis (Ficus spp), Tabaras flowers (Mesua spp), Katiau flowerbuds (Madhuca mottleyana), Nyatoh Gagas flowerbuds (Palaquium cochlearifolium), unripe fruit of Terantang (Campnosperma coriaceum), Mendarahan Hitam leaf shoots (Gymnacranthera farquhariania), unripe fruit of Pisang Pisang Kecil (Mezzetia umbellata), Willughbeia fruit (Willughbeia spp), Malam Malam leaf shoots (Diospyros bantamensis), Jelatong (Dyera lowii), Epiphyte, Pisang Pisang Besar flowerbuds (Mezzetia leptopoda) and Papung fruit (Sandoricum beccanarium).

27th June
Lindy and Hendri confirmed that Ninja have a new baby, named Nidji.

We are engaged in fact-finding missions with the gibbons to establish exactly which groups have infants.
Ninja and Karate are confirmed as having one infant each (Nidji and Brandon Lee respectively).
Group C does not have an infant.
Group E has possibly got a new infant but we have been unable to confirm this as they are proving very difficult to follow.

The team is continuing to investigate the ranging and infant developments and we hope to have a more detailed update by the end of July.