Gibbons or small apes, family Hylobatidae, inhabit tropical and subtropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and adjacent regions (Figure 2 .1) (Groves 1972 (Groves , 2001;; Chivers 1977) . Together with great apes and humans, they belong to the primate superfamily Hominoidea (Fleagle 1999; Groves 2001; Geissmann 2002a; Mootnick 2006) . Hominoids show some typical characteristics such as no tail, an enlarged brain or a broad thorax, which clearly separates them from other primates (Fleagle 1999).

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... ith four genera and up to 16 species, gibbons represent the most diverse group of hominoids. Among hominoids, gibbons are the first to branch off and they differ from great apes and humans in locomotion, morphology, social behaviour and structure, communication and the large number of chromosomal rearrangements (