Exotic pet demand is tearing baby gibbons from the wild and driving the species toward extinction

Exotic pet demand is tearing baby gibbons from the wild and driving the species toward extinction

Exotic pet demand is speeding up the decline of gibbons in Southeast Asia, and conservationists say the trade in baby apes is tearing families apart while pushing some species closer to extinction, according to the Guardian. What's happening? In Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia, demand for infant gibbons is driving a brutal pipeline in which young animals are taken from the wild, with their mothers often killed in the process. At Thailand's Omkoi Wi…

To Tackle Trafficking in Gibbons, Experts Probe What Drives Demand

By Ana Norman Bermúdez As gibbon trafficking reaches record highs, conservationists say reducing demand is critical to tackling the illegal trade. But motivations for wanting to buy a gibbon vary widely between buyer communities, which means the solutions must be tailored accordingly, experts say. Surveys of people who voluntarily surrendered gibbons to a sanctuary in Malaysia found that most cited as motivation a love of animals or desire for …

What drives the trafficking of gibbons? Conservationists shed light on demand

As gibbon seizures reached a record high in 2025, conservationists warn that dismantling the illegal trade requires a deep understanding of the diverse motivations driving consumer demand, contributor Ana Norman Bermúdez reports for Mongabay. In 2025, authorities confiscated 336 gibbons between January and August alone, representing approximately 20% of all recorded seizures since 2016, according to an analysis by the wildlife trade monitoring n…