Escaping danger

Strength in numbers is especially important when escaping predators.

Lots of pairs of eyes help to spot a threat before it gets too close; an alarm call for an eagle means the whole group will drop lower in the canopy, out of reach, while a ground-based predator sends them leaping into the uppermost branches.

Ambush predators, like snakes or leopards, bring the whole group together to face them down: once their cover is blown, they’ll give up. Especially with a whole group of gibbons shouting at them!

Watch these gibbons team up with some monkeys to scare off a leopard.

They may be the smallest apes, but gibbons’ teamwork and keen intelligence make them more than a match for even the biggest predators. These two are having fun teasing tigers!