Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Project

Phuket


Financed by donations (2100B sponsors a gibbon for a year), this tiny sanctuary adopts gibbons previously kept in captivity in the hope of reintroducing them to the wild. You can meet the gibbons on low-key visits; swing by at around 9am to hear their morning song. You can’t get too close to the animals, which may disappoint kids, but the volunteer work here is outstanding. Volunteer opportunities include providing educational information to visitors, cleaning cages, and feeding and tracking released gibbons.

Gibbon poaching is a big problem on Phuket, fuelled in no small part by tourism: captive gibbons are paraded around tourist bars and beaches as photo ops. Phuket's last wild white-handed gibbon was poached in the early 1980s. You can help by not having your photo taken with Phuket's captive gibbons.