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Siamang

Species

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How Gibbons Swing

Gibbons have very long arms. Arms up to two and a half times their body length in some cases. When these animals sit, they have to spread their arms out the way you do with your legs when you sit flat on the ground. This means for them practically though, is a longer length for their pendulum swing. That's more distance to accelerate across on each swing. More speed, more range. In adaptation, less obvious, they're joints. The Gibbons wrist is like your shoulder. It allows them to swing their arm in any direction regardless of the angle their hand is at when they grab the branch. And despite being small, this animal is absurdly loud.

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