The Gibbon Conservation Center needs help solving one unanswered question: Does the center’s newest gibbon look more like a Henry, a Howard or a Yoda?
The male gibbon was born Dec. 7 to his mother Tuk and his father Domino.
“He’s doing really well,” Gibbon Center Animal Care Specialist Tiffany Darden said. “He’s completely healthy and growing quickly and changing every day.”
Gabriella Skollar, director of the Gibbon Center, said the pleated gibbon was the only baby born last year and was the first male of his species born at the center in more than a decade.
“He’s a little baby boy and we only had females in the last 12 years… so it’s very special,” she said.
For the first time, the Gibbon Center is inviting the public to help decide what to name the newest gibbon. In the past, new babies would be named after the founder, the founder’s family, donors or nicknames that stuck.
For $1 per online vote, the public can choose between the names of Henry, after one of the center’s donors, Howard, after the gibbons’ vet, or Yoda, for his large ears.
Gibbon Center visitors will also have a chance to vote for their favorite name by placing their votes in labeled boxes located in front of the family’s enclosure.
All donations from the “Little Baby No Name needs a name” campaign will go toward the Gibbon Center’s Medical Fund to cover the animals’ medical expenses.
Skollar and Darden said they were both excited for the birth of the pleated gibbon, which has less than 50,000 left in the wild in the countries of Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
“It helps with the species as a whole given that they’re all endangered,” Darden said.
To place a vote for the baby’s name visit the Gibbon Center’s website at www.gibboncenter.org.
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