Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Gibbons

Gibbons are the smallest and lightest apes found in Southeast Asia. There are different species in the gibbon family: white- handed gibbon, white – browed gibbon and white- cheeked gibbon.
The white- cheeked gibbon is the only gibbon that is not strictly monogamous. Other gibbons are faithful. Members of a typical gibbon family include the couple a father, mother, and some young animals. The mother is the dominant animal in the group. When the kids are past adolescence, the parents chase them out of the group, because now they can start their families.

The gibbons usually spend their life in the high canopy of tropical rain forests, rarely venturing on the ground. On the trees they prefer to eat small pulpy fruits, buds young leaves and some invertebrates.
The white- cheeked gibbon’s posses an opposable thumb that is used for climbing or grooming but not for swinging from branch to branch. They can move biped ally along branches or on the ground using their arms for balance. In fact, their small body size and long arms are designed to feed from terminal branches and for brachiating through the forest that is for winging from hand hold under branches and vines, using their long fingers as hooks.
Most of the gibbons today are threatened with extinction, because their habitat is being destroyed more and more.

1 comment:

Neha said...

Mam I am a student of class X-H taught biology by you the blog which you have made for us is helping us truely as it has great illustrations with the help of appropriate diagrams.
Mam I wanted to ask that when you are posting the exercise of Life Processes.
Neha
X-H