Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon

Scientific name: Nomascus leucogenys

Conservation status:critically-endanered

Life expectancy: up to 28 years in the wild.

Gestation period: 200-212 days


Lifestyle and Location:

  • These small apes can be found in Laos and Vietnam but believed to have become extinct in China.
  • They are Frugivorous with a diet of mostly fruits but also with leaves, flowers and 10% of their diet is insects and other small animals.
  • They live in groups of around 6 members, this consists of a mated pair and their offspring.
  • The southern white cheeked gibbon was formerly thought to be conspecific with the northern white cheeked gibbon but they now know that they are different species but closely related.


The Northern white-cheeked gibbon is around 46-64 cm but the male is lighter by weight 5.6kg on average and the female weight 5.8kg on average. Males have black hair over the entire body, except the distinct white patches on their cheeks and their hairless faces. They also have a guglar sac. Females however are a reddish-tan colour and lack a tuft on their head like the males have and also a crest of dark brown or black hair running from the top of their heads down to the end of their neck. And like all apes do not have a big tail.

Joss‘s Facts

  • Their arms are 1.2-1.4 times longer than their legs. This is longer compared to their legs than most gibbons and primates.
  • They can travel 35 miles per hour and can make jumps of over 50 feet !
  • They only leave their mother after 6-8 years.
  • Due to research their calls are the most complex from all gibbons and male and female have very different calls.