Couple marry in gibbon wedding

Two animal conservationists have got married in a gibbon-style wedding ceremony in Thailand.

Briton Sam Lake met Israeli Norka Russin while working as a volunteer for the Return Gibbons to the Forest project at Phuket.

Mr Lake, 26, accompanied by a drum band and carrying trays of gifts, summoned his mate by imitating a male gibbon call.

His 28-year-old bride Israel responded with happy monkey calls while swinging down from a treetop into his embrace, reports The Nation.

After the wedding, at a wildlife sanctuary, the groom said: "Once the gibbon has chosen a mate it will not philander."

The couple also exchanged wedding bands, performed a Thai-style water-cleansing ceremony and registered their marriage in the presence of an official

As a wedding gift to the couple, wildlife officials released a gibbon family of four into the wild.