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GIBBON

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 936 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIBBON , the collective See also:

title of the smaller See also:man-like apes of the Indo-See also:Malay countries, all of which may be included in the single genus Hylobates. Till recently these apes have been generally included in the same See also:family (Simiidae) with the See also:chimpanzee, See also:gorilla and orang-utan, but they are now regarded by several naturalists as representing a family by themselves—the Hylobatidae. One of the distinctive features of this family is the presence of small naked callosities on the buttocks; another being a difference in the number of vertebrae and ribs as compared with those of the Simiidae. The extreme length of the limbs and the See also:absence of a tail are other features of these small apes, which are thoroughly arboreal in their habits, and make the See also:woods resound with their unearthly cries at See also:night. In agility they are unsurpassed; in fact they are stated to be so See also:swift in their movements as to be able to See also:capture birds on the wing with their paws.. When they descend to the ground—which they must often do in See also:order to obtain water—they frequently walk in the upright posture, either with the hands crossed behind the See also:neck, or with the knuckles resting on the ground. Their usual See also:food consists of leaves and fruits. See also:Gibbons may be divided into two See also:groups, the one represented by the siamang, Hylobates (Symphalangus) syndactylus, of See also:Sumatra and the Malay See also:Peninsula, and the other by a number of closely allied See also:species. The See also:union of the See also:index and See also:middle fingers by means of a See also:web extending as far as the terminal See also:joints is the distinctive feature of the siamang, which is the largest of the See also:group, and See also:black in See also:colour with a See also:white frontal See also:band. Black or puce-See also:grey is the prevailing colour in the second group, of which the hulock (H. hulock) of See also:Assam, H. See also:lar of See also:Arakan and See also:Pegu, H. entelloides of See also:Tenasserim (fig.), and H. agilis of Sumatra are well-known representatives. A See also:female of the See also:Hainan gibbon (H. hainanus) in confinement changed from See also:uniform sooty-black (without the white frontal The Tenasserim Gibbon (Hylobates entelloides). band of the black phase of the hulock) to puce-grey; but it is probable that this was only an individual, or at most a sexual, peculiarity.

The range of the genus extends from the See also:

southern See also:bank of the Bramaputra in Assam to southern See also:China, the Malay Peninsula, See also:Java, Sumatra and See also:Borneo. (R.

End of Article: GIBBON

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GIBBON, EDWARD (1737–1794)

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