That singing you hear from Point Defiance Zoo? It’s 2 new lar gibbon brothers
There will be a bit more monkeying around at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
Two lar gibbons, also known as white-handed gibbons, can now be seen on exhibit at the zoo’s Asian Forest Sanctuary.
Aries, 4, and Orion, 7, are brothers from the Philadelphia Zoo who needed more space, so they were sent to Tacoma.
Keepers already are smitten with the gibbons, who can leap up to 26 feet between branches and sing a song that lasts 11 minutes and can be heard more than a half-mile away.
“Aries and Orion sing two to three times a day and at least once in the morning,” said assistant curator Steven OK. “We recently heard them sing for 30 minutes.”
Since lar gibbons males don’t mature until they are at least 8 to 12 years old, the brothers are considered juvenile.
Aries is the braver of the two. Orion is more cautious.
“Aries is very athletic, often showing off by doing back flips through the air while swinging from rope-to-rope or playing on the floor and doing somersaults,” said staff biologist Erin Carey. “Anything Aries picks up, he puts right in his mouth or licks it, just like a young child.”
Orion often tries to steal his brother’s treats and loves to be groomed by Aries, but does not return the favor.
They eat fresh salad twice a day and get a special primate chow for dinner. Keepers are introducing them to new foods like cooked chicken, hard boiled eggs and peanut butter. The gibbons’ favorites, however, are red pepper, spinach, grapes and bananas.
Over the next year, keepers plan to introduce the gibbons to other species like the anoa, tapirs and porcupines. That’s possible because the Asian Forest Sanctuary has behind-the-scenes chutes where animals can move securely from their yards into any of the five habitats.
Lar gibbons are endangered with about 15,000 currently living in the wild. They typically live in the high canopy of tropical forests of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 11:18 AM.
