Gibbons have an arm span or 1.5 m or 5 ft long

That's almost as tall as a human.

Check out those long arms. Photo by Ramon Vloon on Unsplash

Gibbons are a tailless small ape found in the tropical and subtropical rainforests of south-east Asia. With over a dozen species, they range in colour from black to brown.

Gibbons are also very social creatures and are known for their vocal displays. Like seriously if you hear one, it can be quite deafening.

And unlike most primates, they mate for life (before you ask, yes cheating does occur).

But what gibbons are known for, are their super long arms. In fact, their arms are 1.5 times longer than their legs. Talk about having short legs.

What’s even funnier is how they run.

While gibbons spend most of their time in the middle and upper canopy of the trees, they do come down to the ground. When they’re on the ground, they run like we do - on their two legs. The main difference between us though, is that they have to raise their long arms over their heads for balance, or awkwardly swing it by their sides.

It seriously looks like their flailing their arms around when they’re running.

Despite their arms making them run funny, their long arms actually have a particular use.

The gibbons use their long arms to swing from branch to branch in the rainforests, a type of movement called brachiation.

Brachiation is so effective, that they can swing for distances up to 15 m or 50 ft, with speeds as fast as 55 km/hr or 34 mph.

Gibbons use those super long arms to swing from tree to tree in movement known as brachiation. Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

And the fact that they have a unique wrist structure, helps them swing so efficiently.

Gibbons have a ball-and-socket wrist joint that allows them to effortless swivel their hands around while swinging. We humans also have a ball-and-socket joint in our shoulder joints, allowing us to swing our arms around.

The benefit to this ball-and-socket joint is that it reduces the stress on the gibbon’s shoulder joint, while also reducing the amount of energy needed in the upper arm and torso. This allows the gibbon to swing so effortlessly from tree to tree.

The gibbon’s ball-and-sock wrist joint gives them that full range of motion when swinging. Photo by Tarryn Myburgh on Unsplash

So, if you pit Tarzan and a gibbon in a tree swinging contest, I’d bet $100 that the gibbons would win. The gibbons for sure, will put Tarzan to shame.