Facts about Orangutans
Orangutans are highly intelligent with an ability to reason and think. This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape "Orang Hutan" literally translating into English as "People of the Forest".The Orangutan is a remarkable creature as it is the world's largest arboreal primate. Now faced with the possibility of extinction in the wild in the foreseeable future the following pages provide some interesting facts about the habits of orangutans and their chances of survival
What is so special about an orangutan?
Their eyes hold a story that is indecipherable and yet intuitively we relate to them. Just one look into those eyes and you are hooked.
Orangutans are highly intelligent with an ability to reason and think. This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape "Orang Hutan" literally translating into English as "People of the Forest". In times past, they would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.
Orangutans are unique in the ape world. There are four kinds of great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from Asia; the others all come from Africa. There are two separate species of orangutan - the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is actually the largest tree- living mammal in the world. Although the rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping nests in the trees, they are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the ground). Even the hair color of the orangutan, a bright reddish brown, is unique in the ape world.
The orangutan has the most remarkable ability to travel through the forest treetops. Each night they will build nests out of leaves and branches in the very tops of the trees.
The upper tree canopy is where the orangutan will live and sleep - sometimes as much as 100 feet above the ground. The orangutan has little need to come down from this height as they are uniquely adapted for their arboreal lifestyle.
Almost all of the food they eat grows in the treetops and the frequent rains fill the leaves, supplying them with drinking water. When water is difficult to find, they chew leaves to make a sponge to soak up the droplets in tree cavities. However when it rains very hard, the orangutan makes an umbrella for himself out of big leaves.
Many people are familiar with the studies that have shown chimpanzees using tools, such as termite-fishing sticks. Recent studies show that some populations of orangutans also fashion tools to aid in the difficult task of foraging for food.
Some might say orangutans have four hands instead of two hands and two feet. These appendages make them graceful and agile while climbing through the trees but makes walking on the ground somewhat slow and awkward. This is why an orangutan is at a great disadvantage on the ground, and an orangutan rarely comes down from the treetops. Their food is there, their home is there and they are safer there.
An orangutan's lifespan is about 35-40 years in the wild, and sometimes into the 50's in captivity. They reach puberty at about 8 years of age.
The orangutan has the longest childhood dependence on a mother of any animal in the world, because there is so much for a young orangutan to learn in order to survive. The babies nurse until they are about six years of age. The young males may stay close by their mothers for a few more years but the females stay until they are into their teens, allowing them to observe mothering skills as they watch their younger sibling being raised. Orangutan females only give birth about once every 8 years - the longest time between births of any mammal on earth. (This results in only 4 to 5 babies in her lifetime.) This is why orangutan populations are very slow to recover from any disturbances.
Food is often scarce in the rain forest and provides the main reason why the orangutan is a semi-solitary creature. However, in times of great abundance of food, orangutans may use the opportunity to socialize and gather in small groups.
Their diet is made up of bark, leaves, flowers, a variety of insects, and most importantly, over 300 kinds of fruit. The mothers must teach the babies what food to eat, where to find that food, in which trees and during which seasons. It is thought that orangutans must have a very complex map of the forest in their mind, and detailed knowledge of the fruiting cycles of many species of trees. (This prevents wasting valuable energy searching for fruit trees randomly, and traveling to a certain fruiting tree whose fruits will not ripen for some time). The babies must eventually know hundreds of species of plants and trees, which ones are edible, and how to process them as some are very difficult to eat because they are protected by sharp spines and shells.
Compared with other apes, orangutans are fairly unsociable creatures. The only real bond which is formed is between mother and offspring. The young stay with their mother until adolescence at about the age of seven, but after that they generally only see each other from time to time. The males move away in search of their own territories. Males travel long distances, paying little attention to other orangutans that they meet.
When the males become sexually mature they develop many distinctive physical features that are very characteristic of orangutans. Fleshy cheek pads form on both sides of their face and a high, fatty crown on their head. Their hair grows long and a beard develops on their faces. They have an impressive call that they produce with the aid of their laryngeal sac (found under their chin). This is called the "Long Call" and is used to locate and advertise their presence to females or warn other males away.
Males often weigh over 200 pounds, where females are 1/3 to 1/2 his size.
The orangutan is regarded as an "umbrella" species. Its arboreal tree-swinging journeys help to spread tree seeds - in fact some trees can only germinate when they have passed through its gut. The orangutan is pivotal in creating the necessary environment for the thousands of fauna and flora which make up the biodiversity of the south east asian rain forest.
Orangutans are one of the least understood of all apes, and are continually under threat from the actions of man. This is primarily from the illegal capture and trade of orangutan young, but also due to the ever-depleting habitat caused by through the extensive logging of their forest homes.
