Fact File
Class: Mammal
Family: Primates
Found: Southern Asia
Body Length: 50cm
Weight: 5kg
Gestation: 7.5 months
Diet: Omnivore
Conservation Status
White Handed Gibbon
Hylobates lar
Habitat: This primate lives in primary or secondary semi-deciduous monsoon forests and tropical evergreen forests. Occupying only the upper canopy, these gibbons rarely, if ever, come down to the forest floor.
Threats: Rapid loss of habitat poses the biggest threat to Gibbons, placing their future in great peril. With breathtaking speed the forests of Southeast Asia are being cut down leaving an ever smaller area in which to live.
In some areas hunting is the major threat to Gibbons they are hunted for meat and for the pet trade. Construction of roads through protected areas worsen the threat since it opens up the forest to humans and development, increases fragmentation, and increases access be hunters.
Range: Found in the tropical rainforests of southern and southeast Asia in the countries of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia - including Sumatra.
