SImon was a siamang who lived in the deep jungles of Sumatra, being a pesky noisemaker throughout the rainforests. Somehow, a herd of elephants who probably never encountered a siamang had gotten spooked by the small ape's loud noises, and they bolted off. Later, an agitated villager attempted to shoot Simon and his friends, but all escaped and a water monitor had been accidentally shot instead. He detested the smell of Sumatran gorals.
Simon had lost his grip on a branch, and it snapped, the ape plummeting to the forest floor. The siamang had been trapped by a poacher's snare, defecating in pain as the snare squeezed tighter and tighter, damaging his windpipe, esophagus and even his vocal sac.