THIS IS THE SONG THAT MIGHT END DEVELOPMENT GETS TOO CLOSE FOR GIBBONS' COMFORT.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

Next to a ranch on the rural edge of Santa Clarita, mornings begin with the twittering of birds and the primal cries of small apes.

The few neighbors near the Gibbon Conservation Center in Saugus have gotten used to the territorial ``song'' the tree-hugging apes make in the morning.

But now, Alan Mootnick -- the 55-year-old founder of the center and self-taught gibbon specialist -- said encroaching development threatens the center and its 30 monkey-like apes from Southeast Asia.

Mootnick opened the center in 1980 in Saugus because of its open space and affordability. But Mootnick says nearing development now looms as a health problem for the gibbons.

``I just thought it would be nice once the development's in, that my place would be worth so much more money,'' Mootnick said. ``But now I realize it's too stressful to have the animals next door to development going in.''

If the nonprofit Gibbon Center leaves, longtime neighbor Bret Moore, a school maintenance worker, will be sad to see it go.

``It's lyrical in the mornings,'' said Moore, 47, who lives a quarter-mile from the center.

``On the weekends, when the sun comes up, it sounds great.''

The center has 30 gibbons living as couples or families, with branches running through the cages and green tarp coverings for shelter.

``It's a lot hotter in the summer and colder in the winters than I would prefer,'' Mootnick said. ``They can handle the weather, but it's more extreme than I would like it.''

Mootnick said he hopes to move the center to Malibu, Camarillo or Santa Paula. Those areas have less development and better climates, he said.

While the area where the center is located remains rural, it has become increasingly developed over the years.

Across Bouquet Canyon Road from the dirt path leading to the center, a real estate company has a pair of roadside advertisements on the edge of vacant land overgrown with yellow brush.

When he was young, Moore said, the area was so rural that his family raised hogs and cattle and he hunted rabbits and rode dirt bikes along horse trails.

``That was before all these people showed up,'' he said.

Mootnick, who runs the center with the help of volunteers, has been ingrained into that rural lifestyle and lives at the center.

His goals are to study and preserve an animal that is increasingly threatened by humans in its native habitat.

The center had 25 gibbon births in the past decade, and Mootnick has won praise for his work from officials with the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos.

Preservationists describe the gibbon as a species under threat.

``They are shot for meat, for their skins,'' said Tom Lalley, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund. ``People do crazy stuff like stick them in jars of wine and call (it) monkey wine.''

No such threats exist for the gibbons in Saugus, where the ``singing'' apes can be seen, for now, during scheduled tours.

For more information on tours and the center's planned move, go to www.gibboncenter.org.

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in SAC and AV editions) Alan Mootnik, who runs the Gibbon Conservation Center in Saugus, stands near one of the compounds that provides a habitat for the ape species on Saturday. Mootnik is raising money to move the center to another location because of encroaching development.

(2 -- ran in SAC and AV editions) - neighbor Bret Moore, 47, a school maintenance worker, on the sounds the gibbons at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Saugus, such as the one above, make in the morning

(3 -- ran in SAC edition only) no caption (gibbon eating)

John Lazar/Staff Photographer