We at IPPL are sorry to bring you sad news. Our wonderful gibbon Igor had a stroke on Friday night which left his right side paralyzed. He could not swing or climb. Our great vet Dr. Ohlandt came on a house call on Saturday afternoon and we decided to move Igor to a smaller house close to the office. As Dr. Ohlandt carried him along in a pet carrier, all the gibbons sat and watched quietly - as if they knew one of their own was in trouble. Dr. Ohlandt gave Igor a prednisone shot. But it did not help our friend. Sadly we decided unanimously to release him from this life and hope he’ll go to a place where he can swing and sing with Beanie and other departed gibbons. All our animal care team came out this morning to say their goodbyes. Igor let everyone groom and stroke him for hours. He even reconciled with Hardy, with whom he got angry when Hardy once went to catch him for a vet check. Igor never forgave Hardy. Till today. Igor had lived with IPPL since 1987 when he came to IPPL from the now-defunct Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in Sterling Forest, New York. He had reached this lab from a pharmaceutical company’s lab in the Northeast. Igor had developed a habit of aggressively self-mutilating when he saw another gibbon, so we built special housing for him in a remote area of the property. We do not know how this habit originated. Igor did have open wounds on arrival which Dr. Ohlandt attended to. In his 27 years with IPPL, Igor never self-mutilated again, in fact he was always very friendly. He loved attention (and got lots of it) and had his own TV. He enjoyed Sesame Street, Barney, Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, and a country music station. Among his favorite foods were apples and sweet potatoes. Among his favorite activities were watching the birds and other wildlife in the woods behind his house. Igor Gibbon, born in the wild around 1956, reached IPPL on June 27, 1987, died on October 13, 2014
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 18:42:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015