Description: Gibbons is a slender animal with a small, round head and soft, woolly fur. A large specimen stands about 85 cm (about 33 in) high; the arm span is nearly twice as long. The gibbon is the only anthropoid ape to walk on its hind limbs only, usually raising its arms for balance. They are quiet during the day but commonly howl at sunrise and sunset. The white-handed gibbon, or lar, (Hylobates lar), of the Malay Peninsula, is distinguished by its white hands and feet and its musical howl.

Range/Habitat: Deciduous monsoon and evergreen rainforest of the islands and mainland of southeast Asia. Found in the subequatorial forests of India, Indochina, and the Malay Archipelago.

Adaptations: The gibbon's most notable characteristic is its long arms, by which it swings from tree to tree with great agility, using its hands as hooks rather than grasping the limbs.

Diet: Birds, birds' eggs, fruit, leaves, insects, and spiders

Courtship/Gestation/Birth: Gibbons are monogamous; the young, born singly, remain with the family group until they are five or six years old.

Remarks: 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. When a juvenile becomes five or six years old, it is driven out of the family unit to establish its own territory.

Card by Henson Robinson Zoo Education Department.

White-handed Gibbon Exhibit

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