Skywalker hoolock gibbon - The Chosen Ones of the Forest | Star Wars Week

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Welcome back to Star Wars week here on the channel. Now 3 days in, it's time to cover some rather uncommon mammals named after the main character of the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker. Which are the Skywalker Hoolock Gibbons.

[00:00:13]Hoolock Gibbons are the second largest group of Gibbons after the Siamang, with them being around 60 to 90 cm tall and weighing up to 9 kg.

[00:00:22]There are currently three known species, among which is the one I'm talking about today, but that wasn't always the case.

[00:00:28]It used to be that there were two species known, being the Western and Eastern Hoolock, with them being isolated from each other by the Chindwin River. But as it turns out, there is another.

[00:00:39]In January of 2017, a paper was published by researchers who found that on all relevant fronts, whether it be morphological, genetic, or craniodental, it was unmistakable that some of the specimens and animals known were in fact distinct. Namely the Eastern Hoolock population found to the east of the Irrawaddy-Mytkyina Rivers, found within Eastern Myanmar and Southwestern China, with them estimated to have diverged from one another around 490,000 years ago. There were some suspicions that they were distinct species prior to this description, given they have quite distinguished white eyebrows and all black or brown beards compared to the other Hoolock Gibbons, who all have white beards. But it's good now to get some confirmation of their distinctiveness.

[00:01:22]Getting to their name, their specific name of Tian Shan is the Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese terms of Tian, meaning heaven, and Shin, meaning movement, with the full name of heaven's movement being a rather wonderful way to refer to their elegant movements in their forest habitats. Given that name, it is remarkably similar to Skywalker, the last name of two of the main characters of the Star Wars franchise, Luke and Anakin. And as the researchers involved were also huge fans of Star Wars, giving them the common name of the Skywalker Hoolock Gibbon was both a fun thing to do and also fitting of this primate's habits and giving them some more awareness of that.

[00:01:59]They noticed around 36 different botanic species, with their preferences being first the fruits, then the leaves, and then the flowers and or stems being last in their preference. Which, as someone who is not a gibbon, that sounds about right. I would also eat them in that order, too.

[00:02:15]It is, however, very unfortunate that these gibbons are suddenly incredibly vulnerable, as they are thought to only number about 150 individuals total.

[00:02:23]This is a much lower number than the up to 370,000 strong Eastern Hoolock population, and so they're in a rather precarious position.

[00:02:32]They've mostly been found in unprotected forest areas susceptible to logging, with habitat fragmentation and the resulting isolation of populations being a serious worry.

[00:02:41]Scientists have had to trek up to 2,500 m above sea level to find suitable habitats the gibbons could be living in.

[00:02:49]As according to one of them, Dr. Sam Tarvu, quotes, "Everywhere below there has been logged." End quote.

[00:02:55]So, as with all vulnerable and endangered animals, the work continues on to protect them and restore the habitats. And as time goes on, hopefully their populations can rebound.

[00:03:06]Anyhow, I thank you for watching this video on these animals, and that you may have learned something new.

[00:03:11]If you would like to see more from this channel, be sure to subscribe if you haven't already. And with that, stay tuned for tomorrow to see some more Star Wars named animals.

[00:03:26]I don't like sand.