Scrappy
FACTS ABOUT ME
Born: September 8, 1974
Name: Scrappy (it fits!)
Sex: male
Companion: Paen
Favorite Food: All kinds of fruit, especially mangos, grapes, and honeydew
Favorite Activity: Getting attention from and making new female friends (humans, that is!)
MY STORY
Scrappy and his mate Uma were brought to IPPL in March of 2007 from another sanctuary in Texas. We were informed that Scrappy and Uma had been sent to Texas in 1993 from the Glen Oak Zoo in Peoria, Illinois after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested that they be moved to a new location. He was originally named “Baba” but was quickly nicknamed Scrappy by a volunteer who helped transport him and his gibbon companions to IPPL after he pulled her hair! This new name definitely fit his personality a lot better and ended up sticking.
Scrappy can be rather temperamental so we have to watch his moods carefully. When he is in a good mood he is a very loving gibbon who will reach out to our female caregivers and demand back scratches. Caregivers do have to watch out to make sure he doesn’t change his mind though because he will suddenly turn and snatch at the hem of a jacket or a dangling pony-tail. If he is feeling especially grumpy, he will even untie shoelaces! Scrappy always gets excited when the animal care staff bring out their bubble enrichment and will run around his enclosure trying to catch every single bubble that is blown his way.
Uma died in October of 2018 and March of 2019 we introduced Scrappy to Paen, who had only lived with her two sisters before coming to IPPL in 2016. She had been introduced to a two other IPPL bachelors but it was Scrappy who won her heart!