Drive all the way up to Bouquet Canyon Road and Esguerra Road in the early hours of the morning and you might just hear eerie high-pitched howling coming from the canyon. Don’t be alarmed, though. These are the sounds of gibbons.
It’s been more than three years since the Santa Clarita Valley Gibbon Conservation Center announced it was going to stay in their Saugus location, after having sought a new home. But some residents are either completely unaware of the center’s existence or thought the center had already left, according to Director Gabriella “Gabbi” Skollar.
“We’re still here and we’ll be here a while,” Skollar said.
The Signal reported in 2021 that the center had announced it had planned to move to a 26-acre property in San Luis Obispo, but the purchase had fallen through.
Skollar said that neighbors began protesting in the surrounding area at the San Luis Obispo property where the center was planning to move, because some of the Gibbons’ howls can be heard up to 2 miles away.
Skollar said that for now, they plan to stay in Saugus and improve the space, rather than move to a different location.
“We are not waiting to find another piece of land,” Skollar said. “Moving is a big project, and I don’t see it happening within the next five years, but we would love to have more land.”
The 5-acre space in Saugus has been home to the apes for 43 years, which houses about five of the approximately 20 different species of gibbons. But because gibbons are normally used to more tropical climates, Skollar said that it’s been difficult to maintain temperatures for the primates.
“It’s a lot of effort, and it’s expensive,” Skollar said. “We built the misting system ourselves through a company, the pumps always need repairs, and every couple of months something needs to be done.”
Skollar also said that the center is putting in the effort to be prepared, should the property’s well run dry or if there are emergency power shutoffs during days with extremely high temperatures.
“We know the [SCV Water Agency] will bring more water to [Bouquet Canyon Road] in the next couple of years, and that would be great,” Skollar said. “But it’s so expensive to join and we don’t have the budget for that at this point.”
Skollar said that she and some of the center’s volunteers even tried planting trees to provide more shade, but that only a few would actually grow – pomegranate and pepper trees, in particular.
The center is open Saturdays and Sundays for guided tours, starting at 10 a.m., with reservations required. More information about the gibbons and the center can be found at www.gibboncenter.org.
