The orangutan enclosure is located at Main Gate of Tama Zoo. In one corner of the enclosure, near Amur Tiger, lives a family of White-handed Gibbon.

White-handed Gibbon are a type of gibbon native to Southeast Asia. As their name suggests, they are characterized by their long arms and white markings around their faces and on the tips of their limbs. There is considerable individual variation in body color, ranging from almost black to light brown. The mother, Mitsu, is light brown, but the father, Tete, and their offspring, Hari (male), born in 2015, are dark in color.

During the day, all three of them relax in the exercise area, basking in the sun, using their long arms to move around, and calling out to each other with their distinctive, resonant voices. In the evening, they move to their sleeping quarters and rest in burlap hammocks or on fire hoses attached in a U-shape.


"Taehyung" resting on a U-shaped fire hose.
Since Hari was born, Mitsu and Hari have been sharing the same bedroom. However, starting around the fall of 2022, Hari has gradually stopped coming into the bedroom more and more often. We tried changing the timing and location of the food we put out in an attempt to get him to come in, but he still wouldn't come in.

On days when they weren't going into the bedroom, I would leave the passageway connecting the outside to the bedroom open, allowing them to come and go freely. Then, Mitsu and Hari would take turns coming in, grab some food, and go back outside. In the mornings, they were both usually inside the bedroom, so it seemed like they could go in whenever they wanted.

Hari was seven years old at the time. He was approaching adulthood, the age when wild birds typically become independent from their parents. He didn't seem to be fighting with his parents in particular, but I wondered if that might be a contributing factor.

So, we refurbished an empty room to create a bedroom for Hari, and started using it in mid-December. At first, Hari was wary and wouldn't come in at all. We placed food in the passageway leading to the bedroom, and once she ate there and felt safe, we gradually guided her into the bedroom, starting with the stairs leading to the entrance. It took some time, but by mid-January, she finally settled down and started going into her own bedroom.


Hari relaxing in her own room
Even now, there are times when he doesn't come into the enclosure. When that happens, we don't force him to come in, and we let him come and go freely between the enclosure and his bedroom. We will carefully observe how the relationship between parent and child changes in the future.

[Tama Zoo]

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