JACKSON, Miss.- Meet Buster, the White-Handed Gibbon, who would love nothing more than for you to come play with him at the Jackson Zoo. Seriously, this little guy has more energy than any human child could ever hope to muster.
Gibbons are indigenous to countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, as well as the continent of India. Buster is a blonde Gibbon. There are also Gibbons with black fur. They are also arboreal, which means they spend their whole life in trees, very rarely coming down to the ground. They have very long arms and legs, with the ability to swing branches up to 50 feet apart, and up to 35 miles per hour.
Gibbons are in the ape family, more related to chimps, gorillas, or orangutans, than they are related to monkeys. They are, however, the only ape that are lesser apes, they rest are great apes. Also, they are the only ape that mates for life. Most male apes mate with multiple females, but Gibbons are the only ones that are monogamous.
Buster is the only Gibbon at the Jackson Zoo, but won’t be alone for long though, they have a female being shipped to them soon for him to have some company. Kristie Gill, a Zookeeper at the Jackson Zoo, is the one who takes care of Buster. “This is a new exhibit,” Gill said. “We just opened it pretty recently, and it’s a really nice exhibit. It’s nice and big. It’s really tall. They love that it’s tall, and they have all that stuff to swing on. So Buster’s pretty excited about his exhibit. He loves it.”
The female is being brought in for mating purposes, and the zoo hopes they begin to mate by next Spring.
Here’s our full interview with Kristie Gill HERE:
And in case you wanted to see Buster in action, here you go
