San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants (original) (raw)

Life among the leaves: Want to find a siamang in its tropical forest home? Look up! They’re usually found in the trees at a height of 80 to 100 feet (25 to 30 meters) in Malaysia and Indonesia. How can you recognize them? Their furry bodies are black (both males and females), they don’t have tails, and they have a large gray or pink throat sac that inflates when they call. Unlike great apes, siamangs do not build nests, because they sleep sitting upright in the fork of a tree, usually alone but sometimes huddled together.

With arms that are longer than their legs, siamangs’ main way of traveling through the rainforest is by brachiation. The motion of their arms looks like the left-right motion of striding legs. During brachiation, siamangs hang from a branch by one hand while swinging their body around to allow the other hand to grasp the next handhold, just like you might do on a playground’s monkey bars.

Siamangs are very acrobatic and agile. Their extra-long arms help them cover up to 10 feet (3 meters) in a single swing. If they’re not swinging through the trees, they’re very likely walking along branches with their arms outstretched to help them keep their balance.

More than half of the siamang’s diet in their native habitat consists of fruit. They also eat leaves and the occasional protein snack, which might include small birds or their eggs, spiders, and insects.

The San Diego Zoo’s siamangs are fed biscuits made especially for zoo leaf eaters and a variety of fruits and vegetables such as oranges, apples, bananas, melons, grapes, yams, Romaine lettuce, spinach, turnips, carrots, and onions. They also get a selection of leafy material, including banana, hibiscus, and eugenia leaves.