The gibbon monkey is an exciting and distinctive animal that you can not help but be captivated and charmed by. There are four different species of gibbon monkeys and many associated subspecies. The four species are found in countries from India to Thailand, China and Vietnam, and further south to Borneo and Malaysia .
Facts about gibbon
| Location: | Asia, southeast |
| Life expectancy: | Over 40 years |
| Weight: | 4-7 kilos |
| Size: | 45-64 centimeters long |
| Food: | Small animals, insects, leaves and grass |
| Quantity: | Unknown |
| Fun fact: | Gibbon monkeys sing every morning and evening to mark their territory in front of other groups of gibbon monkeys. Each gibbon pair has a completely unique song and the song can be heard 5 km away. |
Characteristics
General for gibbon monkeys is that they grow to be about 50 to 90 centimeters tall and weigh 5.5 to 8 kilograms. Gibbon monkeys are available in the colors gray, red, brown, cream and black. In addition, there are four characteristic species of gibbons that are worth mentioning. Namely the white-handed gibbon monkey, the Siamang gibbon monkey, the black gibbon monkey and finally the White-cheeked gibbon monkey.
The white-handed gibbon monkey , as the name suggests, always has white fur on its hands and feet. In addition, it also has a white ring around its face. Otherwise, the color of the coat on the rest of its body can vary from light brown and reddish brown to black. This gibbon usually grows 42 to 65 centimeters tall and weighs about 4.5 to 7.5 kilograms. Especially for the white-handed gibbon, is that it has very long arms. The arms are about 40% longer than its legs.
The Siamang gibbon monkey is, like the others, an animal in the gibbon family. The siamangen is the largest in the gibbon family. Its weight can reach up to about 23 kilos. Furthermore, it can reach a height of 1.5 meters in an upright position. The siamang can especially be recognized by the fact that it is completely black and has no tail.
The black gibbon is, as the name suggests, black. It also reaches a length of 45 to 64 centimeters and a weight of 4.5 to 9 kilograms. The black gibbon leans most on the white-cheeked gibbon monkey in terms of its size. The black gibbon has a characteristic white comb on the top of the head, which makes it easy to recognize it.
The white-cheeked gibbon monkey is usually found in the color black, with white fur on its cheeks. The size of the monkey is roughly the same size as the black gibbon, which is a length of 45 to 64 centimeters and weighs 4.5 to 9 kilograms. Here, too, the arms of the white-cheeked gibbon are longer than its legs.
Food
According to Digopaul, gibbons are mostly vegetarians, however, they can also eat small animals and insects if they find it easiest. However, they prefer to eat fresh shoots and leaves from the trees, but most of all they love to eat fruits from the trees of the rainforest. Gibbon monkeys’ food is typically found only in the heights. Gibbon monkeys spend most of their lives in the tops of trees. Gibbonaber’s favorite is clearly fruits and leaves found in the tops of the trees, and is well ripened by the sun’s warm rays. However, there have been cases where the gibbon monkeys occasionally move down to the land and eat food from here, even though they prefer food from the treetops.
Among the females, it has been seen many times that cannibalism occurs between the bird spiders. Here the females eat the males for nourishment. The bird spider sees everything that moves as possible prey. The males are very small compared to the female, so the female sees no reason not to eat him.
Pregnancy
Since gibbon monkeys are mostly up in the trees, this is also where the gibbon monkey mates and gives birth. The female Gibbon is pregnant for 7 months and usually has only one young. The baby is very close to her mother for the first four months. With strong long arms, the cub thus spends its first months of its life clinging tightly to the gibbon female’s belly. Even when the gibbon female performs acrobatic tricks from tree to tree, the baby is still able to hold on to the gibbon female’s stomach.
Herds
Gibbon monkeys are, like humans, a herd animal that is experienced on trips to Borneo . They live in small flocks made up of their family. The family groups consist of one male, one female and their common young, which are found at different ages. The small groups live in the tops of the trees where they have their territory. Every morning and evening the gibbon monkeys sing, to show other animals and gibbon monkeys that it is their territory. In doing so, they try to preserve their territory, by telling other animals that this is where they live. Once a gibbon has been around for 5 to 6 years, it is being chased away from its own herd. It does, because now it’s time for it to find its mate, and thus begin to start its own flock.
Family
Gibbon monkeys are a subfamily of great apes and are the only genus in the “great apes” family. It is very uncertain for various researchers to judge how many different kinds of gibbon monkeys exist. However, most agree that there are four main species and several different subspecies. However, one thing is for sure and that is that the different species are only widespread in Asia. Here in the Asian rainforest. It is especially countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Laos and Burma where one can find the gibbon monkey in the moist rainforest.
