My sister and I headed off to the Honolulu Zoo with hopes that it would be the best zoo that we’ve visited, but as we walked up to the entrance, the expectations were immediately lowered. Not to say that it looked like junk from the outside, but we could tell that it was going to be smaller than most, and maybe not as nice.

After walking by some minor exhibits, we made our way to the primates. The next thirty minutes are what made the trip to the zoo worthwhile. While the rest of the zoo turned out to be surprisingly interesting and complete (although a little dumpy in parts), what we’ll always remember most was our time with the gibbons.

The first group of monkeys we came across was the White-Handed Gibbon. I’ve been to many zoos in my childhood, but I couldn’t remember any primates being as active as these ones. They were swinging all over the place on their bamboo jungle-gym, always completely airborne and fully outstretched from limb to limb.

After a short time there, however, we were drawn away by a loud, squawking noise coming from a few exhibits away. We quickly scurried over to investigate the racket, and we found the Siamang Gibbons flying acrobatically throughout their jungle-gym, making a loud, distinct noise that we would later identify as their “great call”. They had enormously inflated throat sacs, which we assumed were the source of their unmatched voice. About fifty people stood around the exhibit and watched the gibbons twirl through the air in riotous fashion, calling out the entire time. It was almost as if they were trying to entertain us, and, well, they were pretty successful.

We finally moved on to the rest of the animals, but we were already satisfied with the trip to the zoo. The rest was gravy.