A male northern white-cheeked gibbon was born at Houston Zoo on 30 May 2023 to first-time parents Ting and Max. This is the first time this species has been born at the Houston Zoo.
While mother and baby bonding is going well at the moment, the first few weeks are crucial, and the animal care team is keeping a close watch on the pair. The keepers who have dedicated their lives to caring for the gibbons will have the honour of naming the newborn. Northern white-cheeked gibbons are native to south east Asia, Vietnam, and southern China and are critically endangered in the wild.
Their numbers have declined by 80 per cent over the past 45 years, primarily due to habitat loss and poaching. White-cheeked gibbons have a lot of unique features including being dimorphic in fur colour. This means all white-cheeked gibbons are born a cream colour and then change to black when they are about two years old.
At that point, they develop their iconic white cheek patches. Males will stay black while females revert back to the cream colour. Another way to tell gibbons apart from other primates is through their exceptionally long arms. White-cheeked gibbons have the longest arm length relative to body size of any primate. In fact, their arms are longer than their legs which helps them swing from tree to tree.