|
|
 |
 |
 |
| White-handed or Lar gibbon
(Hylobates lar) |
| Morphology, locomotion and diet |
| |
|
|
 |
| Ethology |
|
|
| The gibbon is monogamous, it mates for life. Gibbons
live in family groups of between two and six individuals (adult pair and four
offspring of varying ages). Males reach sexual maturity after their seventh year
and females after their sixth. The length of gestation varies from 190 to 214
days; at birth the young weighs from 300 to 430 grams. The mother shows great
care and affection for her offspring, which she weans when it is three to four
months old. Gibbons can easily live for over 30 years. The species has adapted
to an arboreal lifestyle; white-handed gibbons move quickly and with great agility
from branch to branch. |
| |
|
|
| Conservation status |
|
|
The gibbon is seriously threatened in the wild (CITES
Appendix I) because of the rapid, relentless destruction of its habitat and illegal
trade, mainly for private buyers. In this regard, the story of the gibbon in our
Zoo Park is particularly interesting. In November 1999 the Italian forestry service
gave us a male gibbon seized from a private individual. This person had smuggled
the gibbon into Italy, from south-east Asia, when it was just a baby and had kept
it at home, as a pet, for seven years!
Now it is part of an EEP; we are trying to encourage it to form a stable relationship
with a female of the same age born in captivity in Wuppertal Zoo, Germany. We
may succeed, but there is a great risk of failure because of the male's long-term
contact with humans. We urge you never to buy animals you may be offered while
you are on holiday. You may feel sorry for them because they look so sweet and
helpless but more often than not these young animals have been torn away from
their parents.
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|