Watch Your Head! Gibbons Are Playing in This Rainforest

If you’re walking through a rainforest, you might want to keep your head up. How else would you know to duck to avoid a swinging gibbon? Gibbons are playful and fun apes who live in the treetops. Their long arms allow them to swing among the tree branches, and sometimes people can find themselves in their path. These playful apes may occasionally interact with people in situations like this. One video captured a gibbon swinging over a family walking along a bridge in a rainforest. Watching these animals’ quick movements and amusing behavior in action is fascinating!

Playful Primates

In the video shared on the @newsflare YouTube Channel, a family walks along a bridge in a rainforest. The towering trees and picture-perfect views are already a sight to behold, but what happens next is truly incredible: up ahead, a gibbon swings onto the bridge in front of them, heading toward the family, who look on in amazement.

Someone shouts to “duck” as the ape gets closer, so the dad crouches down next to his two daughters and watches as the gibbon swings over their heads. Afterward, the camera turns to show the gibbon continuing to swing along the bridge behind the family for a few seconds before stopping, seemingly without a care in the world. Nobody is hurt, and fans in the comments are convinced that this is just a playful move on behalf of the gibbon.

“That Gibbon 100% did that for a laugh 😂😂😂,” one person commented. “At the end: ‘Yeah, I didn’t have to go anywhere, I was just messin’ with you…’” another person wrote.

“That Gibbon is awfully cute! Like a big swinging teddy bear. So entertaining and impressive to see the athleticism,” one person said. Someone else commented, “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Swinging Apes

Gibbons are found in dense jungles and tropical rainforests in Asia. These quick and agile apes often swing through trees at up to 35 miles per hour. They have very long arms, which are about one and a half times longer than their legs. Some species can have arms that span up to 5 feet wide! This allows them to swing and leap from tree to tree with ease, which explains why the gibbon in the video was able to move across the bridge so effortlessly.

Other attributes that enable gibbons to brachiate  (swing through trees) include their unique wrist joints, which can rotate from side to side and back to front; the deep clefts in their hands, which help them grip tree branches; and their powerful legs, which allow them to leap distances of up to 50 feet in a single bound. Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Although gibbons are considered arboreal primates because they spend most of their time in the trees, if they do go down to the forest floor, they walk or run with their arms raised over their heads for balance.  

These cool apes have another interesting trait. Gibbons sing different songs when they feel threatened, when greeting each other, during mating, and at other moments. They will also harmonize in synchronized duets throughout the rainforest and can be heard from up to two miles away. Gibbons are so loud, they are considered the second loudest primate in the world after howler monkeys.

Friendly Gibbons

Gibbons eat fruit, eggs, and insects, and would not be interested in trying to hunt or attack humans. They are friendly creatures, and, as you could see in the video, are typically not afraid of humans. In fact, they are so comfortable around people that they sometimes adopt human behaviors, making it even harder to rehabilitate them back into the wild.

For example, an infant gibbon named Storm was surrendered to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Cambodia, but she was not able to be released back to the wild due to human traits she picked up. For example, Storm learned to hold eye contact and smile, which are considered aggressive behaviors by other gibbons.

This is just one of many reasons why it’s important to never keep a gibbon or other wild primate as a pet. Of the more than 20 recognized species of gibbons, the majority are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with at least one species classified as Vulnerable. They are among the most threatened primates due to the illegal pet trade, hunting, poaching, and habitat loss.