Lar Gibbon

About the Lar Gibbon

The lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often kept in captivity. There are five subspecies of lar gibbon:

Malaysian lar gibbon (H. l. lar) Carpenter's lar gibbon (H. l. carpenteri) Central lar gibbon (H. l. entelloides) Sumatran lar gibbon (H. l. vestitus) Yunnan lar gibbon (H. l. yunnanensis) (possibly extinct) The fur coloring of the lar gibbon varies from black and dark-brown to light-brown, sandy colors. The hands and feet are white-colored, likewise a ring of white hair surrounds the black face. Both males and females can be all color variants, and the sexes also hardly differ in size. Gibbons are true brachiators, propelling themselves through the forest by swinging under the branches using their arms. Reflecting this mode of locomotion, the white-handed gibbon has curved fingers, elongated hands, extremely long arms and relatively short legs, giving it an intermembral index of 129.7, one of the highest of the primates. As with all apes, the number of caudal vertebrae has been reduced drastically, resulting... Wikipedia →