Zoo Babies - Raising Baby Iwani

See he's got to get used to this. He's obviously not liking it but he's going to have to get used to this rough housing that the Siamangs do even when they're playing...

– Zookeeper Christine Tintinger on Iwani adapting to life with other Siamang gibbons

Well that caused the heart to palpitate a little bit! Obviously this is mother, and she forced herself through the slide so I had to get out quick . . . She's never done that before.

– Primate keeper Christine Tintinger, when Iwani's mother makes a surprise entrance

Although he is time-consuming and you are rushing in your day trying to get everything done…I mean this is a once in a lifetime chance, and he is the cutest thing, and I’m having to beat them off with a stick for those who say "oh can I take him home, can I take him home?" And I go "you get to the back of the line".

– Primate keeper Christine Tintinger on her affection for baby gibbon Iwani, in clip three

Everything that you would do for a human baby we’re doing for these guys. We’re burping them . . . they’re getting all their wants looked after you know. They’re being fed, they’ve got a nice, comfy little nest . . . They're too young to sort of know you're not my mother.

– Primate keeper Christine Tintinger on hand-rearing twin Siamang baby gibbons, in clip one

I’m going to tough love myself off him. It’ll get to the point where I’ll just put them together and then go away for half an hour — go do some paperwork or something — and just block my ears for the screaming.

– Primate keeper Christine Tintinger anticipates the day she’ll leave Iwani with his family group, in clip five

Senior keeper Christine Tintinger said the decision to take over the rearing was "tough". "Primates tend to think they're human. We knew there was the danger that if we hand-reared Iwani he could become too humanised and that his family, and other zoos, would reject him." She said animals had been reared away from their species before, and the key to the reunion was keeping Iwani in sight and sound of his family, in a cage next door.

– NZ Herald article on raising baby Iwani, 31 May 2004