Save the Gibbons
Highland
Farm Gibbon Sanctuary |
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Nestled in a mountainous region of Thailand's Tak province, Highland Farm and Gibbon Sanctuary is a home for animals in need. We rescue mistreated and/or injured gibbon apes and other creatures from abusive environments, provide them with a home full of love, care and attention and educate the public of issues facing Thailand's wildlife and environment. As a non-profit organization Highland Farm is committed to:
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Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae. The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates (44), Hoolock (38), Nomascus (52), and Symphalangus (50). The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related to the Hoolock gibbons. Gibbons occur in tropical and subtropical rainforests from northeast India to Indonesia and north to southern China, including the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java.
Also called the lesser apes, gibbons differ from great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans) in being smaller and pair-bonded, in not making nests, and in certain anatomical details in which they superficially more closely resemble monkeys than great apes do. Gibbons are masters of their primary mode of locomotion, brachiation, swinging from branch to branch for distances of up to 15 m (50 ft), at speeds as high as 56 km/h (35 mph). They can also make leaps of up to 8 m (27 ft), and walk bipedally with their arms raised for balance. They are the fastest and most agile of all tree-dwelling, non-flying mammals.
Depending on species and gender, gibbon's fur coloration varies from dark to light brown shades, and anywhere in between black and white. It is rare to see a completely white gibbon.
Gibbons are social animals. They are strongly territorial, and defend their boundaries with vigorous visual and vocal displays. The vocal element, which can often be heard for distances of up to 1 km, consists of a duet between a mated pair, their young sometimes joining in. In most species males, and in some also females, sing solos that attract mates as well as advertise their territory. The songs can make them an easy find for poachers who engage in the illegal wildlife trade and in sales of body parts for use in traditional medicine.
The gibbons' ball-and-socket joints allow them unmatched speed and accuracy when swinging through trees. Nonetheless, their mode of transportation can lead to hazards when a branch breaks or a hand slips, and researchers estimate that the majority of Gibbons fracture their bones one or more times during their lifetimes.
Most species are threatened or endangered, most importantly from degradation or loss of their forest habitat. Gibbon species include the Siamang, the White-handed or Lar Gibbon, and the hoolock gibbons. The Siamang, which is the largest of the 13 species, is distinguished by having two fingers on each hand stuck together, hence the generic and species names Symphalangus and syndactylus.
Gibbon Rehabilitation Project - Phuket Thailand
Many gibbons are hard to identify based on fur coloration and are identified either by song or genetics. These morphological ambiguities have led to hybrids in zoos. Zoos often receive gibbons of unknown origin and therefore rely on morphological variation or labels that are impossible to verify to assign species and subspecies names so it is common for separate species of gibbons to be misidentified and housed together. Interspecific hybrids, hybrids within a genus, also occur in wild gibbons where the ranges overlap.
According to the research of Robert van Gulik, gibbons were widespread in Central and Southern China until at least the Song Dynasty. Based on the analysis of the references to primates in Chinese literature and their portrayal in Chinese paintings, van Gulik concludes that until the gibbons were extirpated throughout most of the country due to habitat destruction (circa 14th century), the Chinese word yuan (?) referred specifically to gibbons. In modern usage, however, this is a generic word for "ape". The "noble" gibbons, gracefully moving high in the treetops, were viewed by the early Chinese writers as the "gentlemen" (??) of the forest, in contrast to the greedy macaques, attracted by human food. The Taoists ascribed occult properties to the gibbons, believing them to be able to live a thousand years and to turn into humans.
Gibbon figurines as old as from the 3-4th century BCE (the Zhou Dynasty) have been found in China. Later on, gibbons became a popular object for Chinese painters, especially during the Song Dynasty and early Yua Dynasty, when Yi Yuanji and Muqi Fachang excelled in painting these apes. From Chinese cultural influence, the Zen motif of the "gibbon grasping at the reflection of the moon in the water" became popular in Japanese art as well, even though gibbons have never occurred naturally in Japan.
| Gibbons are rare, small,
slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling apes. These very acrobatic
primates live in southeast Asia. Gibbons are arboreal;
they spend most of their lives in trees. Because they are so
dextrous while moving in the trees, almost no predators can
catch them. There are nine species of gibbons, including the
siamang, which is the
largest and darkest gibbon. Because of the rapid deforestation
of their habitats, gibbons are an endangered species.
ANATOMY Gibbons are very small and lightweight. They have a small, round head, very long arms (the arms are longer than the legs), and a short, slender body. Gibbons have lightweight bones. Like all apes, they have no tail. Hair: Gibbons are covered with light-colored to very dark brown ( or black) dense hair on most of their body (except their face, fingers, palms, armpits, and bottoms of their feet). Some species of gibbons have a white face ring, a band of white face completely surrounding their face. Senses: Gibbons have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight (including color vision), smell, taste, and touch. Face: Gibbons have a hairless face with dark eyes, small nostrils, and jet-black skin. Hands and Feet: Gibbons' hands are very much like ours; they have four long fingers plus a smaller opposable thumb. Their feet have five toes, including an opposable big toe. Gibbons can grasp and carry things with both their hands and their feet. When they swing through the trees (called brachiating), they use four fingers of their hands like a hook (but they do not use the thumb for this). SIZE Male gibbons are slightly larger than the females. Males are about 3 ft (90 cm) long and weigh about 15 pounds (7 kg). DIET Gibbons are omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in the forests during the day, eating fruit (which constitutes about 75% of their diet), leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, and tender plant shoots. They also eat insects, spiders, bird eggs, and small birds. Gibbons drink water, often by dipping a furry hand into the water or rubbing a hand on wet leaves, and then slurping up the water from their fur. Gibbons sometimes do this while dangling above the water from a thin tree branch. BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL HABITS Groups of Gibbons: Gibbons are social animals that are active during the day (they are diurnal). They live in small, stable family groups consisting of a mated pair (a male and a female who mate for life) and their immature offspring (juveniles, gibbons less than 7 years old). Grooming: Like other apes, gibbons groom one another (they clean the hair of a family member). Sleeping: Unlike other apes, gibbons do not make "sleeping nests." They simply sleep (alone or with a few gibbons huddled together) in a fork between branches. They sleep sitting upright, resting on tough pads located on their rear ends (these pads are called ischial callosities). TERRITORIALITY AND VOCALIZATION A gibbon family has a territory of about 30 to 50 acres of old-growth rain forest. Each morning upon awakening a family group of gibbons loudly announces its presence in the forest, using a territorial hooting call and menacing gestures. This call warns other gibbons to stay out of their territory (and especially away from the local fruit trees). This noisy display takes 1/2 hour or more every morning and is usually started by the adult female. The male and female have different calls. The siamang, the largest and darkest species of gibbon, has an inflatable throat sac (called a gular sac). This sac can be inflated to be as big as the siamang's head. It acts a resonating chamber for the vocal chords, making the sounds even louder. LOCOMOTION Gibbons are extremely acrobatic and agile. They spend most of their life in the trees. They move by swinging gracefully from branches and vines; this is called brachiating. When they brachiate, they use four fingers of their hands like a hook (but not the thumb). They can also walk along small branches high up in the air, like tightrope walkers; they use outstretched arms to help keep their balance. Gibbons can also leap acrobatically across large gaps in the tree canopy from tree branch to tree branch; gibbons have been known to leap over 30 feet (9 m) in a single jump. Gibbons cannot swim and avoid the water. When on the ground (which is rare), gibbons walk bipedally (on two legs). LIFE SPAN Gibbons live about 35-40 years. HABITAT Gibbons live in old growth tropical rain forests in southeast Asia. DISTRIBUTION The different species of gibbons live in different parts of southeast Asia, from China to the Malay peninsula, Burma, and North Sumatra. REPRODUCTION AND BABY GIBBONS Gibbon mates usually stay together for life. They are fully grown and able to reproduce at 12-13 years old. Female gibbons are pregnant for about 7 months and usually have a single baby at a time; twins are rare. Newborn gibbons are hairless except for a small cap of fur on the top of the head. Female gibbons carefully nurture their young. Babies can grasp their mother's fur to cling to the mother's belly soon after birth. They are weaned at about 1 year old. Young gibbons stay with their mother for about 6 years. The young then venture out (or are forced out by the same-sex parent) to start a new family group of their own. POPULATION COUNTS Gibbon populations are decreasing; they are threatened with extinction. Gibbons are losing their natural habitat because human agriculture is encroaching on it. Population numbers are decreasing. There are estimated to be about 79,000 lar gibbons (the white-handed or common gibbon). THE EVOLUTION OF GIBBONS The earliest-known primates date from about 70 million years ago (Macdonald, 1985). The greater apes (family Pongidae, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans) split off from the lesser apes (family Hylobatidae, gibbons and siamangs) 20 million years ago. Gibbon-like fossils have been found in Africa (from the Oligocene and Miocene), Europe (from the Miocene), and Asia (from the upper Pliocene and Pleistocene). CLASSIFICATION Gibbons belong to the:
Lar gibbons from the Oakland Zoo. The Gibbon Conservation Center, an organization devoted to the study and conservation of gibbons. Thomas Geissmann's Gibbon Research Lab |
The White-handed gibbon, like the gorilla,
chimpanzee and orangutan, is an ape, not a monkey. They share
with the great apes (gorilla, orangutan and chimpanzees)
several features: a large brain, a flat face with shortened
jaws, a more or less upright posture, a broad chest and no
tail. Ischial callosities are present. Gibbons are very small and lightweight. They
have a small, round head, very long arms (the arms are longer
than the legs), and a short, slender body. Gibbons have
lightweight bones. The long
forearms which assist it in suspensor y behavior. Gibbons are
arboreal; they spend most of their lives in
trees. Gibbons are covered with light-colored to very
dark brown ( or black) dense hair on most of their body
(except their face, fingers, palms, armpits, and bottoms of
their feet). Fur is extremely dense, providing
protection from rain. One square centimeter of skin has over
2,000 individual hairs (13,125 per sq. in.) compared to 900
hairs per sq. cm. for Old World monkeys. Some species of gibbons have a white face ring,
a band of white face completely surrounding their
jet-black face.Snout is not protruding; nostrils are more
widely spaced and more lateral than Old World Monkeys. Small
jaws with long canine teeth. Gibbons have senses very similar to ours,
including hearing, sight (including color vision), smell,
taste, and touch. Gibbons' hands are very much like ours;
they have four long fingers plus a smaller opposable thumb.
Their feet have five toes, including an opposable big toe.
Gibbons can grasp and carry things with both their hands and
their feet. When they swing through the trees (called
brachiating), they use four fingers of their hands like a hook
(but they do not use the thumb for this). Thumb is used for
climbing tree trunks and thick branches and for manipulation
of food and grooming. The upper sides of hand and feet are
always white (‘white-handed’), contrast is less apparent in
the buff specimens. The white-handed gibbon is found in different parts of southeast Asia, the countries
of Burma, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, North Sumatra, and
Thailand. This species is found in old growth tropical
rain forests, semideciduous monsoon forests and tropical
evergreen forests. They prefer the covered closed canopy but
during feeding may climb to highest emergent crowns of trees
or descend to clumps of bamboo and low bushes, or to drink.
The lar gibbon is one of the pickiest eaters in
the primate world. The
white-handed gibbons are
mainly frugivores,
preferring fruits high in sugar such as figs. Gibbons are
omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in
the forests during the day, eating fruit, and
they may
visit 16 or more widely spaced food trees in a day's foraging.
About 75% of their diet is fruit, but they also
eat leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, and tender plant
shoots. Sometimes they also eat insects, spiders, snails, bird
eggs, and small birds. Zoo diet is primate chow, fruits,
vegetables and browse. They have several adaptations for feeding. One
of them is brachiating locomotion, which involves swinging
from branch to branch by their arms. This style of motion
allows them to reach the edge of the tree canopy, where most
of their food is found. Other adaptations include high cusps
on their back teeth to help grind plant matter, and a gut
adapted for a folivorous diet. Social: Gibbons are social animals that are active
during the day (they are diurnal). Gibbons mate for
life; the young, born singly, remain with the family group
until they are five or six years old. Like other apes, gibbons
groom one another (they clean the hair of a family
member). The males are not
socially or physically dominant over females. They are
vigorously territorial, spending up to 1/2 hour or more each
morning calling and displaying. The function of calling seems
to be both territorial and to reinforce the pair bond. The
calling bout is usually initiated by the female. Male and
female "duet" with different "songs." The female song is a
plaintive swooping call, rising to a crescendo - her great
call; the male calls with a high-pitched "quaver song."
The male usually takes
the lead in attacking other gibbons encountered, although they
rarely actual fight. Playful ‘biting’ matches, which can be painful
to a human, seem to determine rank order of mature juveniles
within the group. Even serious bites don't seem to hurt them
because of their dense fur. Female gibbons carefully nurture their young.
Eyes are open at birth and body and limbs are bare; very
dependent on their mother for warmth. Many are white at birth
and do not become black or final color until 2 – 4 years old.
Babies can grasp their mother's fur to cling to the mother's
belly soon after birth. Infants are hairless
except for a cap of fur on the crown. Babies usually have light
hair at first and darker hair develops as they grow older.
They are weaned at about 1 year old. Young gibbons stay with
their mother for about 6 years. The young then venture out (or
are forced out) to start a new family group of their own.
Movement: Gibbons are extremely acrobatic and agile. They
spend most of their life in the trees. They move by swinging
gracefully from branches and vines; this is called
brachiating. When they brachiate, they use four fingers
of their hands like a hook (but not the thumb). They swing
from branch to branch (horizontally or vertically), with legs
flexed under body; using arms alternately and keeping hand
bent in hook shape, and movements appear effortless. They are
able to change direction even during fastest bounding by
slightly touching a branch. While swinging, they are able to
catch birds out of the air and eat them after
landing. They can also walk along small branches high up
in the air, like tightrope walkers; they use outstretched arms
to help keep their balance. Gibbons climb when moving slowly
and feeding. Gibbons can also leap acrobatically across large
gaps in the tree canopy from tree branch to tree branch;
gibbons have been known to leap over 30 feet (9 m) in a single
jump. The gibbon is the only anthropoid ape to walk on its
hind limbs only, usually raising its arms for balance. Gibbons
cannot swim and avoid the water. When on the ground (which is
rare), gibbons walk bipedally (on two legs). These are the most active
of all gibbons. They move faster, more quietly, and farther
each day than any other forest apes or monkeys. Brachiation
comprises 90% of locomotor activity. Adaptations include
precision of movement, incredible eye-hand coordination and
dexterity. This remarkable agility makes a healthy adult
gibbon virtually invulnerable to predation. They sleep sitting
on their ischial callosities, hands resting upon flexed knees
and head buried between knees and chest. Territories: Each family defends its territory by song and
threat display. Gibbons are very territorial. A pair maintains
and defends a territory through a series of calls and
vocalizations. They also use an elaborate system of calls to
keep track of family members within the territory. Communication: The white-handed gibbon is distinguished by its
musical howl. They are quiet during the day but commonly howl
at sunrise and sunset. They are very vocal, making loud
"whoop" sounds. Their loud resonant songs can be heard up to
1/2 mile away. Songs by far excel those of all other species
because of a sound-amplifying throat sac. In
friendly greetings, corners of mouth are drawn back, revealing
teeth, and tongue is sometimes protruding. In anger, mouth is
opened and closed repeatedly, smacking lips and snapping teeth
together. Snarling is interpreted as an intention of
biting. There are 9 species with 9 different territorial
songs. The gibbons seem to be born knowing the songs
because they are always the same, and not learned. Habits: Gibbons do social grooming, when one
individual grooms another, to reinforce the bonds between
individuals. They do not construct sleeping nests but
show preference for specific ‘sleeping trees’ where no other
This species is threatened for a several
reasons. These gibbons are hunted for meat in some areas. Live
capture for the pet trade also poses a serious problem. In
many Asian countries, it is "fashionable" to own your own
primate, and this has led to the death of many gibbons either
at the time of capture or during transport. The final, and
greatest, threat to the gibbon is deforestation. Rainforests
are disappearing at an alarming rate due to logging and
agricultural, leaving forest species with an ever smaller
region in which to live. Some efforts are being made to save
these primates, such as national parks and reserves, but they
are not very effective. Laws protect them from live capture,
but they are rarely enforced. Gibbon populations are decreasing; they are
threatened with extinction. There are estimated to be about
79,000 lar gibbons (the white-handed or common gibbon).
Lar gibbons retain only 10% of their original habitat in
protected reserves. In 1987, the IUCN estimated that there
were 79,000 lar gibbons but to protect the more endangered
species, all are listed as endangered by the USDI (1980) and
are on appendix 1 of the CITES, prohibiting commercial trade
in gibbons. They are endangered and participate in the Species
Survival Plan. Their
Life span is 30 to 40
years.
The average body mass for an adult
male white-handed gibbon is around 5.7 kilograms, and for the
female it is around 5.3 kilograms. Male gibbons are slightly
larger than the females. Males are about 3 ft (90 cm) long and
weigh about 15 pounds (7 kg).
The white handed gibbon
has throat sac located beneath the chin to help enhance the
calls. Male song is simple with quaver-hoots, female song is
longer, rising to climax, about 18 seconds long.
Location:
Food:
Gibbons drink water,
often by dipping a furry hand into the water or rubbing a hand
on wet leaves, and then slurping up the water from their fur.
Gibbons sometimes do this while dangling above the water from
a thin tree branch. They drink by licking their own fur
after a storm, or dipping an arm into a tree hole or rubbing
it on wet foliage.
Duetting is
the singing between the male and female, and is dominated by
the female. This helps to maintain the pair bond between the
pair and to maintain the territory. Each morning upon
awakening a family group of gibbons loudly announces its
presence in the forest, using a territorial hooting call and
menacing gestures. This call warns other gibbons to stay out
of their territory (and especially away from the local fruit
trees). This noisy display takes 1/2 hour or more every
morning and is usually started by the adult female. The male
and female have different calls.
family group is tolerated. They sleep sitting erect in
trees, huddled together in twos and threes, with knees bent up
to chin, hands folded on knees and face buried between the
knees and chest. They sleep sitting upright, resting on tough
pads located on their rear ends (these pads are called ischial
callosities).
Status:
endangered
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More
information about
Gibbons
Friends:
www.koi.sg
www.arowana.asia
www.koiforum.ch
www.handbag.asia
www.spamassage.asia
www.kampffische.com
2011