Each of the 21 gibbons living at IPPL’s Headquarters Sanctuary deserves a happy life. Many of our residents have come to IPPL after years in research labs, at sub-standard zoos, or as pets. By “symbolically” adopting an IPPL gibbon, you help to ensure that your chosen gibbon will continue to get the best care possible: enjoying peaceful surroundings in sunny South Carolina, living in spacious enclosures, and eating a varied diet of fresh, natural foods.
THESE IPPL GIBBONS ARE “SYMBOLICALLY”AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION:
AHIMSA
Ahimsa was born at IPPL to Shanti and Arun Rangsi, two former lab gibbons. His name is Sanskrit for “no harm to all living creatures.” Once Ahimsa matured enough to leave his parents, he was paired with a female named Elizabeth, who came to IPPL from a tourist attraction in Florida. Sadly Elizabeth passed away in 2021. After living as a bachelor for a while, Ahimsa was introduced to Jade in April 2023, whose mate had also passed away, and the two had been together until Jade’s passing in 2025. He is now often seen laying in the tubing closest to his male neighbor, Peppy, or scanning property at the top of his arch.
COURTNEY
Courtney was a “surprise baby” born unexpectedly at IPPL’s Sanctuary on January 10th, 2002. Unfortunately, Courtney’s mother Michelle rejected her a few days after birth, and Courtney was raised by caregivers. Fortunately, Courtney found a companion named Whoop-Whoop in 2009 and they have been together ever since! She remains one of the most interactive gibbons on the property and has extremely close bonds with the Caregivers. Courtney’s favorite activity is playing tag with the animal Caregivers and asks for it multiple times a day! It’s a really fun way to get some additional daily exercise in!
DIANNE
Dianne is one of our more reserved gibbons. She is daughter to IPPL’s own Arun Rangsi and Shanti. Dianne is a more gibbon oriented primate and is less interested in interacting with caregivers. Dianne has two male companions to spend time with, Robbie and Gary, which is an uncommon pairing as gibbons are usually monogamous! She enjoys spending time in her tower with Gary by her side and stealing Robbie’s food!
ELSA
Elsa is one of the many children of IPPL’s Arun Rangsi and Shanti. When she grew up, she was placed with Nicholas, a former zoo gibbon. They are one of our most bonded couples as they frequently groom, cuddle, and play together. Despite being raised in a regular gibbon family with her parents and many siblings, Elsa greatly enjoys being groomed by our Animal Caregivers which is part of her prescribed Care Plan. Elsa, like a number of our female gibbons, thinks it is her duty to remind nearby females how fierce she is. Her preferred way of doing this is her own style of food fighting. While staring at her intended target, Elsa will do a kind of heavy-duty chewing; spewing little pieces of her food everywhere and will even throw bits in the direction of her rivals to remind them to stay in line. There are times when we swear she has thrown more food than she has eaten!
ERIN
Originally from the Hattiesburg Zoo in Mississippi, Erin was sent to a sanctuary in Texas when aggression broke out in her zoo family group. In Texas she was paired with her current mate Ziggy, another ex-zoo gibbon. Unfortunately, the Texas sanctuary fell on hard times so the family came to IPPL in March 2007. Erin and Ziggy remain together and are tightly bonded. While very sweet, Erin is also shy and does not usually approach people unless they have a tasty treat in hand! Erin enjoys spending time grooming and being groomed by her very attentive mate Ziggy.
Erin has a missing foot from an injury but she still uses her leg for balance and will often prop her leg up on the bars of her enclosure.
Gibbons are naturally arboreal and use a type of arm-over-arm swinging called brachiating to get around, so the loss of her foot has not hampered her much!
GARY
Gary spent most of his life at a tourist attraction in Silver Springs, Florida. He, his mate Glenda, and their children lived on an island in the middle of the Silver River where people would ride by on boats and kayaks to watch the gibbons. When the park closed and the state of Florida decided to acquire the land and turn it into a state park, all of the animals needed to find a new home. Luckily, IPPL was called and asked to take in Gary, Glenda and their two children, Thai and Kendra. On May 13, 2013, the family of four arrived at IPPL to start their new life. Gary is a petite, blond gibbon, when he arrived we could hardly believe that he was the dad of Thai who was twice Gary’s size! When Thai and Kendra matured, about a year after they got here, they were moved to an enclosure across from their parents so we could begin finding them companions, which left Gary and Glenda to spend all their time together until Glenda passed away in 2015. Gary was paired 2 more times in the intervening years, but ended up single again in 2023. Last year, Caregivers started to notice Gary spending a lot of time near his neighbors Dianne and Robbie. Gary was successfully introduced to Robbie and Dianne in July of 2025. The trio spend a lot of time together, increasing Gary’s natural behaviors and giving him companionship!
GIDEON
Gideon was born at a Nebraska zoo on January 11, 1995. He lived with his brother in an indoor mixed-species exhibit, but when his brother passed away, the zoo tried to pair Gideon with one of their female gibbons. After multiple failed attempts, the zoo contacted IPPL and asked if we could be his forever home. Gideon started his journey to IPPL on October 26th, 2019 and was picked up at the Atlanta airport by Caregivers. He settled into his new home very quickly and enjoyed everything his Caregivers had to offer him. Because Gideon is so intelligent, his favorite activities include figuring out how to solve puzzle feeders and participating in the Operant Conditioning Program.
LOUIE-LOUIE
Louie-Louie came to IPPL with his elderly parents Cleon and Clementine (both now deceased) in October 1991 from the Lubee Foundation in Florida, after the sudden death of the establishment’s founder, Louis Bacardi. Those who took over management of the facility decided to end their primate program with approximately 180 primates and instead focus solely on bats.
At IPPL he was paired with a female named Michelle and was with her for seven years until she unfortunately passed from cancer. Despite being a single gibbon, Louie-Louie is still a very energetic gibbon. He is often seen swinging around his enclosure at impressive speeds. Caregivers have been adding more enrichments for Louie-Louie and the other gibbons, which has been helpful in his care. Louie loves to leap and bound around using the ropes and hanging fire hoses as slingshots to propel him even faster. Louie-Louie knows how to relax once he’s exhausted himself, and staff members have often come across Louie lying sprawled out on the floor of his outdoor enclosure to bathe in the sun.
MAUI
Maui came to IPPL in March of 1996 with his parents Jade and Palu-Palu from the Maui Zoo, which was being closed due to its violations of the Animal Welfare Act. After reaching maturity, IPPL paired him with a female companion named Michelle, who was born to Arun Rangsi and Shanti. Shortly after, and despite Maui’s supposed vasectomy, Michelle and Maui produced a “surprise” baby that we named Courtney.
Eventually, Michelle and Maui were separated due to some injuries Michelle caused him. This split didn’t dampen his spirits however—he is an extremely easy-going gibbon who enjoys swinging on the ropes and lounging in his firehose hammocks in his enclosure. He also enjoys spending time with Caregivers during his operant conditioning sessions because he knows he’ll get a tasty treat!
MAYNARD
Maynard was formerly a pet who was confiscated during a drug bust. He was surrendered to a small sanctuary for rescued animals of all species in Washington State where he lived for four years. After receiving threats from surrounding neighbors because of his loud singing, the owner of the sanctuary contacted IPPL and we arranged to have him shipped to the Atlanta Airport where we picked him up and drove him to his new home on October 30th, 2009. Today, Maynard’s loud singing is greatly appreciated and blends right in with the other gibbons of IPPL! He is easily one of the most athletic gibbons, and this can be seen when he sprints along his enclosure and launches himself through the air. One of Maynard’s favorite pastimes is eating offered browse from around the property!
NICHOLAS
Nicholas lived at two previous facilities before he was given to IPPL in April of 1993. At an Illinois zoo, Nicholas was kept off-exhibit in an indoor aviary shared with several birds of prey. He has an eye condition called entropion, which causes the eyelid to turn inward, and being housed with birds of prey most likely caused and aggravated the condition. Shortly after he arrived at IPPL, we brought in an ophthalmologist from the Medical University of South Carolina to check his eyes. The doctor observed no irritation and luckily, since his move to IPPL, he has not suffered from a flare-up of entropion. He was paired with a female gibbon named E.T. and the two of them had a son named Robbie! Unfortunately, E.T. and Nicholas had bouts of aggression that warranted separation. But afterward Nicholas was successfully paired with female Elsa and they have been together ever since! Caregivers usually see Nicholas laying on top of his climbing tower and being groomed by Elsa!
PAEN
Paen previously lived in a zoo in the northwest. She and her two sisters were in zoos most of their lives and were companions the entire time. Since her last sister passed, Paen was all alone, so the zoo asked to retire her to our sanctuary. Paen was transported from the Atlanta airport by the Animal Care Staff and arrived at IPPL on June 18, 2016. After Paen’s arrival, caregivers attempted to introduce her to two of IPPL’s bachelors, but she showed no interest. But in March of 2019, male Scrappy was the companion who won over her heart! Paen is often seen carrying and grooming stuffed animals, but does enjoy grooming Scrappy too! She will often dip her stuffed animals into water sources and drink from them. Apart from stuffed animals, Paen loves to sing and usually gets the whole property to join in!
ROBBIE
Robbie was born here at IPPL on January 20th, 1994 from parents E.T. and Nicholas. Today, Robbie is very active and is a confident adult gibbon. He has a playful nature and is paired with two gibbons, a female Dianne and a elderly male named Gary. Robbie enjoys interacting with caregivers, especially if they have anything food-related or initiate a round of chase! Robbie is the most outgoing in his group and helps give Gary and Dianne confidence. Robbie is a big foodie and sometimes tries to steal food from his buddies. Robbie really enjoys browse and enrichment that challenges him mentally and physically. Robbie comes over whenever he is called and is always interested in anything going on!
SNOWY
Snowy is originally from a wildlife park in southern Florida where he lived with his mate and a few offspring. As his male children grew up, they began to get a little territorial with Snowy and showed signs that they needed to be separated. IPPL got a call in late 2017 asking if we could take in Snowy and one of his sons, Val, after the facility suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Irma and fell on hard times. A couple of staff members drove down to Florida and brought Val back to IPPL in November of 2017 and Snowy followed a month later in December.
We soon learned that Snowy and Val are very different from each other. Where Val is laid back and easy-going, Snowy is a bit more standoffish. He spends all day moving from his night house to his enclosure, swinging on every surface and rope he can get his hands on. About the only time Snowy takes a break is when the animal care staff comes around with his meals!
Snowy and Val lived in side-by-side enclosures but did not have access to one another until a recent reintroduction in the fall of 2025 for companionship! The two of them are often seen grooming one another and enjoying each other's company!
SCRAPPY
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.
Uma died in October of 2018, and in 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 two other IPPL bachelors, but it was Scrappy who eventually won her heart!
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. He is also a big fan of the local browse that grows on property.
SPANKY
Spanky is one of the unfortunate primates bred in the U.S. for the pet trade. He was purchased as a birthday present by a family when he was eight months old and was intended to be a companion for a female gibbon they already owned. After their female died, Spanky’s owner contacted IPPL in March of 2014 and asked if we could take him in, as she could no longer care for him. She agreed to sign a statement saying that she would never again purchase or care for a pet primate, so she and her husband drove Spanky cross-country and delivered him to us. We soon discovered that they had removed all four of his canines because they claimed he had difficulty chewing, though this procedure is often done to pet primates to keep them from biting humans. We certainly have never seen him have trouble chewing, and he has one of the biggest appetites on the property!
Spanky is a non-stop ball of energy and was paired with Speedy in November 2025. He enjoys quickly brachiating in his outdoor habitat and now has a companion to play and run with. They share a mutual love of mealworms, play, training, and enrichment!
SPEEDY
Speedy is one of Arun Rangsi and Shanti’s children, and she was born after Arun Rangsi’s first vasectomy was not successful, making her a surprise baby! When Speedy matured, we started seeing tensions between her and Shanti, so we removed her and placed her with Maui, who had come to IPPL from the Maui Zoo in 1996. Maui and Speedy would spend most of their day wrestling with one another but unfortunately Maui liked to watch the other female gibbons and Speedy would become very jealous. Eventually the tension between Maui and Speedy got a little too intense for our liking, so they were separated in 2016. Speedy was most recently paired with Spanky in November 2025. Spanky is a former pet who is energetic and matches Speedy’s energy!
Speedy is an extremely active gibbon who enjoys wrestling and flying through the ropes and pieces of fire hose we provide to them for enrichment and ease of brachiating. Speedy and Spanky enjoy play and activities and their mutual love of mealworms, training and enrichment.
THAI
Thai arrived at IPPL on May 13, 2013 along with his big sister Kendra, and parents Gary and Glenda. The four of them came to us when the Silver Springs, Florida tourist attraction where Thai was born was being closed: the facility was disbanding its exotic animal collection, and the site was being turned into a State Park/event venue. Thai came to us with the nickname of “Buddha Boy” and had a great big Buddha belly to go with it! He weighed about 29 pounds, which is a lot for a gibbon and much more than his petite father, who was half his size. He came with a taste for treats and a reputed fondness for being hand-fed. Fortunately, he has slimmed down quite a bit since his arrival and has taken a liking to the healthy diets we feed our gibbons. Thai enjoys participating in training and learns behaviors quite quickly. The training helps challenge Thai intellectually, and it is also helpful for his medical care and husbandry.
VAL
Val was born at a wildlife park in southern Florida where he lived with his parents and a couple of siblings. We got a call in late 2017 asking if we could take in Val and his father, Snowy after the facility suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Irma and fell on hard times. A couple of staff members drove down to Florida and brought Val back to IPPL in November of 2017. He was separated from Snowy, his father, due to tension in his family group at his previous wildlife park. As soon as we got Val settled into his new night house, he showed what a sweet and trusting gibbon he is by immediately presenting his back to the animal caregivers, looking for some attention and reassurance. Needless to say, we fell in love with him right away!
When Val first got to IPPL he was a little unsure of his new surroundings and would spend most of his time inside his night house as opposed to swinging around his enclosure. After some one-on-one time with members of the animal care team, Val got the courage to venture outside and quickly realized how enjoyable all this new space could be. Today Val spends most of his day zipping around his enclosure at top speeds and running up and down his runway, spying on his neighbors.
As much human attention as Val enjoys, he luckily found a companion in his father Snowy in November 2025, and without the tension in his family, they make a great pair and seek companionship in each other. He now has unlimited attention from another gibbon, and they participate in grooming with one another and playing, too!
WHOOP-WHOOP
Whoop-Whoop came to IPPL in March 2007 from another sanctuary where he had lived for four years. Before that, Whoop-Whoop had been used for research at a notorious primate lab in Louisiana, the New Iberia Research Center, which was exposed in 2009 by a Humane Society undercover video showing the mistreatment of some of the 6,000 primates who were captive there.
We don’t know his age, but mild-mannered Whoop-Whoop seems like an older gibbon. In May 2009, we put him together with Courtney, a surprise baby born at IPPL in 2002 and hand-reared after her mother rejected her. We weren’t sure how Courtney would react to being placed with another gibbon after being around humans for so many years, but we thought sweet Whoop-Whoop would be a good companion for her. Courtney was sometimes a little nervous around him at first, but after some months she gradually lost all fear of him and they are a bonded pair.
Whoop-Whoop has always appreciated toys and arrived at IPPL accompanied by what looked like a little rubber alien. He especially likes stuffed animals and inexpensive cloth hand puppets—which he consistently turns inside-out. He likes to groom them, rub them on things, put them on his head, carry them about, or just sit there holding them. Courtney sometimes shows an interest in Whoop-Whoop’s accessories too! Aside from stuffed animals, Whoop-Whoop enjoys the company of Courtney and the two of them can often be seen at the top of the tower grooming each other!
ZIGGY
Ziggy arrived at IPPL in 2007. He came with his female companion Erin from a Texas sanctuary that was undergoing reorganization. Prior to that, he had lived at the Dallas Zoo. Ziggy came to IPPL with some missing fingers due to frostbite but it does not seem to slow him down and you can typically see him all over his habitat brachiating!
Ziggy is very bonded to his companion Erin and prefers her company over that of the Caregivers! They will eat closely together without conflict and sit side-by-side in the aerial tubing watching neighboring gibbons. He enjoys interacting with enrichment that challenges him mentally and physically, and loves to find food all around his habitat including the ripe fruit on the trees outside of it!
