Yesterday we went to Santa Clarita, to see the apes at the Gibbon Conservation Center. None of us realized that the Gibbon is a super endangered type of Ape, two species of Gibbon are actually the most endangered primates in the world! The GCC is the only place in the world devoted exclusively to the Gibbon, whose natural habitat is disappearing rapidly. The GCC helps keep the Gibbons from becoming extinct by caring for families that create offspring, and giving captive Gibbons a home.

We got some pictures of infant Gibbons at the conservation center, and a researcher named Gabi showed us how a one-year old Gibbon has learned to walk on Gibbon Slacklines! He was a little reluctant while we were around, but he’s definitely the only one-year old I’ve ever seen walk a slackline, usually they just drool and bounce up and down, but this tiny little Gibbon had no trouble at all! It was actually crazy how graceful the adult Gibbons were, they swing around so easily it looks like they’re flying. There were slacklines in a few of the family enclosures, but I didn’t see any others walk the slackline. Gabi said they have to get over being scared of it before they’re comfortable enough to play. I guess we’ll just have to come back to the GCC in a couple months and they’ll be better slackliners than the humans.

We did a little slackline demo, Gabi can slackline a bit too, it was her who taught the tiny Gibbon how, and one of the child volunteers, Garret looks like he could be a wicked slackliner before long. The GCC was a great stop on the tour, it was awesome how excited they were about Gibbon slacklines, and it’s nice to know someone’s looking out for our namesake. To learn more about Gibbons and the Gibbon Conservation Center, go to www.gibboncenter.org.