Please do not whoop at the gibbons, nature's comedic geniuses

One of my core childhood memories is going to the local zoo with my mom, heading to the gibbon area, and watching the cute, lanky creatures swing through the trees like little furry acrobats. If we got lucky, we'd also get to hear their glorious vocalizations. I remember marveling at how skilled and silly they were, and I could hear their loud whoops echoing in my head long after we would leave the zoo for the day. Through those trips I fell in love with gibbons and to this day they're one of my favorite animals.

If you like gibbons, do yourself a favor and watch this fifteen-minute video all about nature's comedic geniuses by animal commentator Mamadou B. Ndiaye, who runs the YouTube channel "Casual Geographic." We've brought you his entertaining — and educational — videos before, and, lucky for us, he's continued his awesome work.

His video about gibbons is entitled, "This is the funniest animal on earth, I'm sorry," and I really have to agree. He goes so far as to posit that, indeed, this "tiger taunting, vocal chord-flaunting, terminally trolling, usually barrel-rolling primate might just be the prime ape." No lies detected.

Along with lots of terrific footage of gibbons doing their thang, the video is also chock-full of gibbon facts. Unlike most other apes, they exhibit low sexual dimorphism (meaning males and females are basically the same size), they don't build nests to sleep in (they are basically very low effort creatures, which is entirely relatable), they spend their entire lives in trees, and they're monogamous. Well, scratch that last 'fact,' which was based on faulty observational data. Ndiaye explains the details in the video. Suffice it to say that follow-up research determined that they are very much not monogamous

Gibbons have massively long arms — the longest arms of any ape — and specialized shoulders and wrists that help them swing (aka "brachiate") through forests with ease. Their swinging can reach speeds up to 35 miles per hour and they can leap up to 30 feet between trees! They also exhibit a special mix of clownery plus bravado — they have been known to, for instance, swing down from branches and swat at leopards and tigers, in order to get them to move along out of gibbon territory. They also playfully taunt dogs, humans, and cats. They seem to be scared of mice, though, for some reason. But they can be sweet, too, as they also often befriend orangutans, dogs, and sometimes humans, too. You know I love a good interspecies friendship!

In the video Ndiaye teaches us all about many kinds of gibbons, including Siamangs (the biggest gibbon, at 30 pounds, with throat pouches like frogs have), Northern white cheeked, Skywalker (named by Star Wars-loving scientists), Hianan, Hoolock, Silvery, and Pileated. I don't know which is my favorite, because they are all so adorable.

It's definitely not all fun and games for the gibbons, though. Many species of gibbons are endangered, due to habitat loss, illegal hunting, and wildlife trade. And the video also makes clear that it's not fun for the gibbons if, when you visit them at a zoo, you whoop at them and rile them up. You definitely shouldn't make noises at them or encourage them to whoop, no matter how ridiculously funny their vocalizations are (and, for the record, I do love hearing a good gibbon whoop) — it's harmful to them, as those vocalizations serve specific purposes for them, including marking territory and communicating with other gibbons. It can also be dangerous for the humans involved — in 2011, a gibbon escaped from a zoo in Malaysia and attacked two children. The San Diego Tribune reported at the time that the attack was possibly caused by "provocation by irresponsible visitors." So, yeah, please do not whoop at the gibbons.

If you want to learn more about gibbons and lots of other animals, go follow Casual Geographic on YouTube.