Common Name: Lar Gibbon Scientific Name: Hylobates lar
LOWER RISK Lar Gibbon Distribution: Southern East Asia
Habitat:
Lar gibbons are small apes and like all apes, including Chimpanzees and Gorilla they do not have a tail. A tail is one feature that makes it easy to tell the difference between apes and monkeys. Gibbons have long arms that they use to hang from branches and swing through trees. This swinging movement is called brachiation.
Forest
Height: Approx. 50cm
Weight: 4.5kg - 7.5kg
Diet: Omnivorous Fruit, leaves, birds.
Lar Gibbons have a ring of white fur around their faces and they have white hands and feet. The rest of their coat can be almost any colour, including cream, red brown and black. Lar Gibbons are found in South East Asia, in south eastern China, Thailand, Laos, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. They live in almost every variety of forest, but prefer lowland forests. Like all gibbons, the main part of Lar Gibbons diet is fruit, but they also eat a lot of leaves. Flowers are enjoyed when they are in season and they supplement their diet with meat by catching birds out of the air as they are swinging!. Lar Gibbons live in monogamous pairs, which means that a male and a female live together and rear their offspring. Breeding occurs throughout the year with the females gestation period (pregnancy) being about 205 days. Offspring live with their parents until they are around 8, when they leave to find a mate of their own. Each family lives on a territory of around 12 and 50 hectares and they defend it from their neighbours through loud calling displays that are performed most mornings.