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Freedom day

A rehabilitated siamang family is released back into the wild.

Today will be a life-changing day for the siamang family. The team prepares for their release. It鈥檚 important that Chanee and his team are able to make a quick getaway if necessary: Tommy and his family feel that this is their territory now. It鈥檚 the first time a big family has been released on Marak, but it鈥檚 a big risk, especially for the young baby.

Mother Dewi and baby Desri are the first to taste freedom. But it鈥檚 not long before Tommy joins them. Tommy and Dewi were both born in the wild, but have spent most of their lives in captivity. This is the first time they have left the confines of an enclosure for many years. Already they seem quite at home. For young Suci, who was born here at Marak, the prospect of life with no walls is a little more daunting. She鈥檚 frightened and calls repeatedly to her parents. Eventually, with a little encouragement from mother Dewi, Suci plucks up the courage to join her family in the trees.

This is the climax of the rehabilitation process, the culmination of years of work that started with the rescue of each illegally held gibbon. This family of siamangs has been given the chance to live a free and natural life - a gibbon鈥檚 life - in the forest.

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Duration:

4 minutes