Western Black Crested Gibbon

The black crested gibbon is a species of gibbon found in China, Laos and northern Vietnam, with four subspecies. It is 43–54 cm long and weighs 6.9–10 kg. The species is sexually dichromatic: the male is completely black, while the female is golden or buff with variable black patches, including a black streak on the head (Wikipedia, general species account).

It mainly eats fruit from a variety of plant species, and feeds on flowers, leaves and buds at increased rates when fruit is scarce; rarely it takes fungi, insects, bird eggs and young, and small mammals such as flying squirrels. Its distribution is discontinuous across south-western China, north-western Laos and northern Vietnam. A thousand years ago gibbons that may have been crested gibbons ranged over much of southern and central China up to the Yellow River. The Tonkin subspecies occurs in southern Yunnan and northern Vietnam (Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Son La and Lai Chau provinces) between the Black and Red Rivers.