Gideon

Gideon was born at a Nebraska zoo on January 11, 1995. He lived with his brother in an unusual zoo setting. It was an indoor mixed species exhibit. After his brother died the zoo tried to pair Gideon with one of their female gibbons, but he was not interested. After multiple failed attempts, the zoo contacted IPPL and asked if we would take him. Of course, we said yes and quickly made the arrangements to bring him to his new home at our sanctuary in South Carolina.

On October 26, 2019 Gideon was flown from Nebraska to Atlanta. IPPL staff members picked him up he then made the 4.5-hour drive to Summerville, happily munching on grapes the whole time. After living inside for so long, Gideon was fascinated by life outside! He would spend all morning swinging around his enclosure and then would sit in his runway and watch his neighbor, Snowy.

Because Gideon is so sociable, the Animal Care staff are able to do a lot of behavioral training and enrichment activities with him. This training is one reason he settled into his routine here so quickly and we’ve even seen the neighboring gibbons pick up on cues from Gideon! He is incredibly intelligent and enjoys when we hand out puzzle feeders as enrichment because it doesn’t take long for him to retrieve the tasty treats inside. This has forced us to create more complicated puzzles for Gideon to figure out, and we’ve noticed that when he gets intensely focused, he sticks his tongue out of his mouth!