Lesser Apes
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The term lesser apes often refers to Hylobatidae physical features. The gibbons, for example, tend to be medium sized (average three feet in length standing upright) and hairy but on the thin side. Most species do not weigh more than twenty pounds, with little size difference between males and females.
However, a family centered social structure consisting of a pair of male and female parents along with offspring, further differentiates them from the Great Apes.
One Siamang species (Hylobates syndactylus) joins the Gibbons in the lesser ape family. Weighing up to thrity pounds, the Siamang is the larges of the Hylobatidae species. Longer arms also differentiate them from the giboon species.
Both Gibbons and Siamangs are primarily arboreal animals that inhabit many different forest areas of Southeast Asia, where they spend much of their time foraging for food, mostly fruit, supplemented by leaves, flowers, and the occasional insect.
Anyone who has witnessed them at zoos or animal parks learns that many species have an aversion to water, and bounding their territory with a moat is as suitable a gibbon boundary as a fence.
The IUCN currently recognizes fifteen different gibbon species, all but one listed as either endangered or critically endangered. Habitat loss from logging and fires place the most stress on current population levels.
© 2010 Patricia A. Michaels.