On Saturday 24 October, Twycross Zoo celebrated International Gibbon Day. 2015 was named the “Year of the Gibbon” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in a bid to raise awareness of the threats gibbons face, as it is feared they will be one of the next group of animals to face global extinction in the wild.
Renowned as a centre of excellence in primate care, Twycross Zoo has one of the widest range of gibbon species throughout Europe. The zoo is an important contributor to endangered breeding programmes to help conserve the species of gibbon in its care, whose populations are under serious threat in the wild. Twycross Zoo is home to four different species of gibbon; agile gibbons, pileated gibbons and siamangs are all endangered species, and the zoo also has a family of northern white cheeked gibbons which are critically endangered in the wild. Each of these groups will be moving into a brand new Gibbon Forest exhibit, which is currently under construction and will be opening early in the New Year.
Photo Credit: Nigel Palmer
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