Mammals
White-Handed Gibbon
Hylobates lar · also called lar gibbon, common gibbon
The white-handed gibbon is a small, long-armed ape that lives its entire life in the rainforest canopy of Southeast Asia. It is one of the fastest and most graceful animals in the trees, one of the few primates that pairs for life, and one of the loudest — a gibbon dawn chorus can be heard across a valley.
Overview
White-handed gibbons inhabit tall, closed-canopy tropical rainforest on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and parts of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. They are almost entirely arboreal, moving through the middle and upper canopy and rarely descending to the ground, where they are slow and vulnerable. Fur colour varies from cream to black even within a family, but the hands and feet are always pale, and the face is ringed with a white border.
Swinging through the canopy
The gibbon body is built for brachiation — hand-over-hand swinging beneath branches:
- Arms much longer than legs, with hook-shaped hands and a thumb set back out of the way.
- A freely rotating shoulder that lets the arm circle almost fully.
- A short, stiff torso and no tail, keeping the centre of mass close to the grip.
Swinging like a pendulum, a white-handed gibbon covers up to 15 metres per swing, hits 55 km/h in bursts, and launches across gaps of more than 10 metres. On the rare occasions it walks along a large branch or the ground, it goes upright on two legs with its arms held out for balance.
Song and family
White-handed gibbons live in small family groups — a bonded adult pair and their dependent young — that hold a stable territory. Each morning the pair performs a duet: interlocking male and female phrases building to the female’s soaring “great call.” The song advertises ownership of the territory and the strength of the partnership, and unpaired individuals sing alone to attract a mate.
Diet
The gibbon is a ripe-fruit specialist, with figs especially important, supplemented by young leaves, flowers, and a small amount of animal food. By eating fruit and moving widely, gibbons are significant seed dispersers for many rainforest trees.
Reproduction
A female gives birth to a single infant every two to four years after a seven-month pregnancy. The infant clings to her for the first year or two and is cared for by both parents; young gibbons leave the family at around seven to eight years old.
Threats and conservation
The white-handed gibbon is Endangered and declining. Deforestation for oil palm, rubber, timber, and agriculture is fragmenting and shrinking its habitat, and because gibbons need continuous canopy to travel, forest fragmentation isolates groups. They are also hunted for meat and traditional medicine, and infants are taken for the pet trade after the mother is shot. The species is already gone from China and almost certainly from Vietnam, and protecting large connected blocks of lowland rainforest is essential to its survival elsewhere.
White-Handed Gibbon: common questions
Are gibbons monkeys or apes?
Apes. Gibbons are the "lesser apes," family Hylobatidae, distinct from the "great apes" (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans) but sharing the key ape features — no tail, a broad chest, mobile shoulders, and a relatively large brain. There are about 20 gibbon species, all in Southeast Asia, and they are the most numerous and diverse apes after humans, even though they are far less famous than the great apes.
How do gibbons move through the trees?
By brachiation — swinging hand-over-hand beneath the branches with the body hanging below. A gibbon's arms are much longer than its legs, its hands act as hooks (the thumb is set well back so the fingers can grip a branch without it getting in the way), and its shoulder joint rotates almost like a ball-and-socket. Swinging in this pendulum style, a gibbon can cover 3 to 15 metres per swing, reach speeds around 55 km/h, and leap gaps of over 10 metres. It is the fastest and most acrobatic non-flying tree animal.
Why do gibbons sing?
To defend territory and to reinforce the pair bond. Each morning a mated pair performs a loud, coordinated duet — the male and female have their own parts, which interlock, and the female's climactic "great call" is a rising, accelerating whoop that carries a kilometre or more through the forest. The song tells neighbouring pairs the territory is occupied and by a strong, well-matched couple. Unpaired gibbons sing solo, effectively advertising for a mate.
Do gibbons really mate for life?
Largely, yes — gibbons are among the few primates that are socially monogamous. A pair holds a territory together, sings together, grooms, and raises one infant at a time, with young staying until they are seven or eight and then dispersing to find their own mate and territory. It is not absolute — "divorce," infidelity, and re-pairing after a death all occur — but the long-term pair is the basic unit of gibbon society, unlike the multi-male, multi-female groups of most monkeys and great apes.