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White-handed or lar gibbons
live in the rain forests of Indo-China and Thailand, west of the
Mekong River, in the rainforests of Tenasserim, on the Malay Peninsula
and in the rainforests of Sumatra.. |
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Adult lar gibbons grow to a
heigth of about 16 to 25 inches and weigh anywhere from 11 to 18
pounds.. |
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The lar
gibbon is a small tailless ape with very dense, silky, shaggy
fur varying in color from black or dark brown to pale fawn
or silver grey. It has a slender body with a short and broad
chest cavity. Its round head is small with a flat forehead
and well-developed chin. Framed by a white fringe, the lar's
face is bare and darkly colored. Its small jaws are equipped
with long canine teeth.
The lars gibbons' arms are greatly
elongated. The upper sides of its hands and feet are always
white (‘white-handed’), This contrast is less apparent
in the buff specimens. |
A Real Swinger! |
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All gibbons belong
to the genus Hylobates, which means "dweller in trees," which
certainly describes a gibbon's lifestyle. They typically live in
the canopy of the rain forest, but during feeding they may climb
to highest emergent crowns of trees or descend to clumps of bamboo
and low bushes. |
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When drinking, gibbons hang
upside down from overhanging branches and quickly dip hands into
the water. Their diet consists of 80% fruit, 20% leaves, buds and
blossoms, tree ants and other insects, and snails and small vertebrates.
They like to plunder birds nests and expertly catch small birds. |
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Safe landing! |
Probably the fastest of all primates
and the most agile of all mammals in trees. They swing from
branch to branch (horizontally or vertically), with their
legs flexed under their body; using their arms alternately
and keeping their hands bent in a hook shape. The movements
of all gibbons appear effortless.
Incredibly, gibboms can swing so far
forward they ‘fly’ up to 40 feet through the air
and leap downward about 50 feet, until they hook another limb
or land on their feet on a solid perch! |
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Gibbons usually
associate in family groups consisting of a male, a female, and several
offspring of various ages. Male dominance does not exist within
the group. Playful ‘biting’ matches, which can be painful
to a human, seem to determine the rank order of mature juveniles
within the group. Even serious bites don't seem to hurt them because
of their dense fur. Each family defends its territory by song and
threat display. |
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Gibbons do not
construct sleeping nests but show a preference for specific ‘sleeping
trees’ where no other family group is tolerated. They sleep
sitting erect in trees, huddled together in twos and threes, with
their knees bent up to their chin, hands folded on knees and face
buried between the knees and chest. |
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| Gibbons are self-willed ‘personalities’
in their mating preferences; not very easily bred in captivity.
One young is born after a gestation period of 200 – 212
days, usually at two-year intervals. The baby's eyes are open
at birth and body and limbs are bare. Newborns are very dependent
on their mother for warmth. Many are white at birth and do
not become black or their final color until 2 – 4 years
old |
Mother and baby |
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Gibbons are hunted
by leopards, clouded leopards, and man. Thanks to their keen senses,
agility, and adaptability, man's progressive settling of their habitat
has not caused them as much damage as is experienced by the great
apes, but the White-handed gibbon is listed as endangered. |
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Their loud resonant
songs can be heard up to 1/2 mile away. Songs of the gibbons by
far excel those of all other species because of a sound-amplifying
throat sac. They are most often heard in early morning and again
in the evening hours. |
