The lar gibbon, also known as the white-handed gibbon, is a part of the lesser apes group (The great apes being chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutan and humans). Though they are apes, they have more similarities to monkeys than other apes, and are significantly smaller in size than the great apes.
They live in SE Asia (China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia) and are in decreasing numbers. Reason: Deforestation. They are almost entirely arboreal and its preferred mode of travel is swinging from trees. As you can guess, losing these trees would make it tricky for these primates to swing around.
There are two things in particular that I really like about them.
1. When they walk, they use their extremely long arms as a balance bar. They walk on branches very high off the ground, so it's certainly useful. The last picture is one walking -- I couldn't find a good one of it walking high off the ground.
2. They duet with their mating partners. Gibbons are known to sing and sometimes do it solo to protect territory - their call can be heard up to a full kilometer away from the point of origin. When with their partner, it is used as a courtship display to attract the mate but also ward off any potential competition. The duets are often complex with specific parts the males sing that the females counteract with -- it's pretty fascinating.
I will post a video of the duet later this evening -- I don't want to turn up my volume at work so I want to make sure that if I post it, the duet is clear. In the meantime, if you search for gibbon duets, you will surely find something.
They live in SE Asia (China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia) and are in decreasing numbers. Reason: Deforestation. They are almost entirely arboreal and its preferred mode of travel is swinging from trees. As you can guess, losing these trees would make it tricky for these primates to swing around.
There are two things in particular that I really like about them.
1. When they walk, they use their extremely long arms as a balance bar. They walk on branches very high off the ground, so it's certainly useful. The last picture is one walking -- I couldn't find a good one of it walking high off the ground.
2. They duet with their mating partners. Gibbons are known to sing and sometimes do it solo to protect territory - their call can be heard up to a full kilometer away from the point of origin. When with their partner, it is used as a courtship display to attract the mate but also ward off any potential competition. The duets are often complex with specific parts the males sing that the females counteract with -- it's pretty fascinating.
I will post a video of the duet later this evening -- I don't want to turn up my volume at work so I want to make sure that if I post it, the duet is clear. In the meantime, if you search for gibbon duets, you will surely find something.
The first photo such ridiculous!))
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