A friend of Aric, Darren, has a big construction project in Genting Permai. A few months ago he sent us a short video of a monkey, picking up a piece of fruit, left by his staff on the grass near the showroom of the project. Here is the video, watch it. Look how carefully the monkey picks up the fruit, smells it and then climbs the tree to eat it. If you watch closely, you can see that it is a female, carrying a baby.

Actually, it is not a monkey, but an ape as it has no tail. It is a Siamang, a member of the Gibbon family. They live in trees, eat fruits and young leaves, and are an endangered species, mainly because of habitat loss. In If you have ever heard their loud and melodious “singing” in the morning, you will never forget it.

Darren’s staff continued putting pieces of fruit on the grass, and soon she got used to humans and became a regular visitor, bringing her family. Siamangs are monogamous and live as a family, in this case of father, mother, a subadult (?) and a baby. Recently Darren invited us to join him to the project. Here is a video of how the mother welcomes him, still carrying the baby. She walks on her legs, using her arms to balance. Fascinating to watch,

We had bought a big bag of apples, cut by the staff into smaller pieces. Here Darren is feeding the family. They are friendly, not at all aggressive.

Father, mother and baby. Note how hairy they are and how black.

Individual portraits

Note how long the arms are. And the fingers

Two more pictures, brightened up by Aric, to show more details.

It was very enjoyable to feed them by handing over a piece of apple. which they accepted politely

I tried to feed the baby, but that was not easy, because the mother grabbed the fruit already, and did not share it with the baby.

Aric took most of the pictures. Here is a selfie. While we were feeding the siamangs, we enjoyed coffee and biscuits, presented by Daren’s staff.

When they had finished the fruits, the family went back to the bamboo grove, but kept watching us. There were still a few pieces of apple left, I walked to the bamboo, and the mother came swinging down, to accpet it, this time leaving her baby in the bamboo. Aric took a short video.

What a wonderful experience.

I have given this post the title A meeting with distant relatives. And that is true, because both humans and gibbons belong to the same Ape superfamily. Here is our pedigree.

The lesser apes gibbons) split from the great apes (orang utan, gorilla, chimpanzee and human) about 16-20 16 million years ago. That is very long ago, but we are still family 😉

One more drawing of our various sizes.