Haven of the apes losing its serenity

Mootnick wants to buy at least 50 acres in Ventura County, where the coastal climate is better suited to gibbons. He has been hosting fund-raising drives with the aim of securing $1 million to contribute to the expected $2.5-million to $4-million price tag of a new property. He hopes the eventual sale of the Saugus site will cover the outstanding costs.

The apes' offspring -- there have been 25 births during a 10-year period at the facility -- have kept the center's gibbon population thriving, Mootnick said. He has also acquired new gibbons through exchanges with zoos as far away as Japan, Australia, France and Russia.

It costs around $150,000 a year to take care of the primates, Mootnick said. He forgoes a salary, he said, and relies on two staffers -- only one of whom is paid -- and an army of volunteers from schools, universities, churches and other groups.

Funds to run the nonprofit facility come from state grants, private donations, paid tours of the center and sales of merchandise, such as T-shirts and miniature stuffed toy gibbons.

Several businesses donate landscaping material, equipment and feed, and Mootnick insists that payment he receives for lecturing at universities and other forums go to the center's bank account.

Ardith Eudey, an Upland-based primate specialist with the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said that the ideal solution to conserving gibbons is "to protect their natural habitat and make it possible for them to continue in the wild." But she commended Mootnick's efforts to understand the apes and share his knowledge about them.

"Alan does this valuable service," said Sheeran, the Washington primatologist.

"He is really the only spokesman for that group of apes," she said.

Topics he has written about in scholarly journals include "Hostile Presenting in Captive Gibbons" and "Sexual Behavior of Maternally Separated Gibbons."

He has gained many insights into gibbon behavior, both serious and, well, odd. Gibbons raised by humans, with little or no contact with other gibbons, are likely to be afraid of their own kind, he said.

Gibbons are prone to "moon" an onlooker if the stares -- from a gibbon or human -- make them uncomfortable. And if they're very upset they'll sometimes break wind in the direction of the presumed antagonist.

Gibbons can also be deceptive, sometimes hiding food from family members. It is a characteristic rarely seen in other nonhuman primates, Mootnick said.