Facts About Orangutans

[goosey]

Orangutan - Malaysian word for “man of the forest”

Order – Primates
Family – Pongidae
Genus – Pongo
Height - 1.1 -1.4m
Weight - 40 – 80kg
Life span - Up to 50 years (if they are allowed!)


The Pongo pygmaeus species mainly live in swamp and mountain areas of the Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo Rain forests. They live, eat and sleep in the lower to mid canopy of trees 6 -30m off the ground.

The Orangutans are so well adapted to living in trees, technically, they have four hands rather than two hands and two feet. They have broad, flat feet with long toes to grip branches like fingers. They have strong hands with short opposable thumbs so they can climb and manipulate food. Their legs are relatively short and weak, making it difficult to keep upright for long. For these reasons, they are quick and gracious moving through the trees but it makes moving on the ground awkward and slow going, so they rarely come down to earth.

Orangutans feed mainly on leaves and fruit, using their hand to peel fruits and strip plants. Fruit ripens on different trees at different times, because of Orangutan s intelligence and memory they plan routes to get to the fruit just as it ripens. They will also supplement their diet by eating lizards, termites, honey and bird eggs. They use their cupped hands to drink water.

They are mainly solitary apes, but communicate by lip smacking and will scream when they are scared. If they are frustrated, grind their teeth. Adult males uses a throat pouch to make calls which echo through the forest to announce their presence to females and rival males.

Orangutans reach sexual maturity about 6-8 years old, with a female having a monthly cycle like humans. Males have cheek pads which grow larger as they age – indicating their sexual maturity. They have a very slow reproductive rate and usually only have one baby every 4-8 years twins are a rarity. They mate hanging by their arms in the trees followed by a gestation period of 8-9 months. Until the infant is one it will cling to the fur on its mothers belly, then will travel on her back until it is 2 years old. Babies are nursed at their mothers breast, but can take soft food from its mothers lips at 4 month. They won’t be totally weaned until well over 3 years.

Orangutans are the most endangered of the great apes. Loss of habitat by forest fires, logging, forest clearance to make palm oil plantations and mining are destroying their habitats at a terribly frightening rate. Orangutans are “protected" by law, but this doesn’t stop mothers being killed and babies sold illegally for pets. They have an enchanting look about them, and use large leaves as umbrellas – wonderful creatures with a bleak future. A really sad note to finish on.

[StuartDH]

Great info Goosey. I had no idea that could live for up to 50 years. I always assumed that it was something like 10-15 years.

Looking at most of your info, I'm wondering if my dad might be an orangutan because he does few of the things that you've listed...although I won't say which ones

Stu

[amazinggrrl]

Originally Posted by goosey

Orangutan - Malaysian word for “man of the forest”

Order – Primates
Family – Pongidae
Genus – Pongo
Height - 1.1 -1.4m
Weight - 40 – 80kg
Life span - Up to 50 years (if they are allowed!)


The Pongo pygmaeus species mainly live in swamp and mountain areas of the Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo Rain forests. They live, eat and sleep in the lower to mid canopy of trees 6 -30m off the ground.

The Orangutans are so well adapted to living in trees, technically, they have four hands rather than two hands and two feet. They have broad, flat feet with long toes to grip branches like fingers. They have strong hands with short opposable thumbs so they can climb and manipulate food. Their legs are relatively short and weak, making it difficult to keep upright for long. For these reasons, they are quick and gracious moving through the trees but it makes moving on the ground awkward and slow going, so they rarely come down to earth.

Orangutans feed mainly on leaves and fruit, using their hand to peel fruits and strip plants. Fruit ripens on different trees at different times, because of Orangutan s intelligence and memory they plan routes to get to the fruit just as it ripens. They will also supplement their diet by eating lizards, termites, honey and bird eggs. They use their cupped hands to drink water.

They are mainly solitary apes, but communicate by lip smacking and will scream when they are scared. If they are frustrated, grind their teeth. Adult males uses a throat pouch to make calls which echo through the forest to announce their presence to females and rival males.

Orangutans reach sexual maturity about 6-8 years old, with a female having a monthly cycle like humans. Males have cheek pads which grow larger as they age – indicating their sexual maturity. They have a very slow reproductive rate and usually only have one baby every 4-8 years twins are a rarity. They mate hanging by their arms in the trees followed by a gestation period of 8-9 months. Until the infant is one it will cling to the fur on its mothers belly, then will travel on her back until it is 2 years old. Babies are nursed at their mothers breast, but can take soft food from its mothers lips at 4 month. They won’t be totally weaned until well over 3 years.

Orangutans are the most endangered of the great apes. Loss of habitat by forest fires, logging, forest clearance to make palm oil plantations and mining are destroying their habitats at a terribly frightening rate. Orangutans are “protected" by law, but this doesn’t stop mothers being killed and babies sold illegally for pets. They have an enchanting look about them, and use large leaves as umbrellas – wonderful creatures with a bleak future. A really sad note to finish on.

Thanks for this great information. I have been researching endangered animals that I feature on my bamboo/organic cotton t-shirts (go to: Amazing Tee's, Collectible, Inspirational, Eco-friendly) This is the most interesting that I have found. I have always loved orangutans because of their interesting personalities and expressive faces.

[paul m]

Co-operative orangs:
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Orangutans learn to trade favours

[paul m]

Apparently, orangs and other primates laugh:
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Tickled apes yield laughter clue

[tcvarlh]

Here's a bit more about 'em :
Orangutan
Pongo pygmaeus
Pongo abelii
The orangutans are a species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, and their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of other great apes; a new black-haired subspecies was recently discovered on Borneo by primatologist Birute Galdikas. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, though fossils have been found in Java, the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Vietnam and China. There are only two surviving species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae (which also includes the extinct genera Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus).
Etymology
The name orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest", thus "person of the forest". Orang Hutan is the common term in these two national languages, although local peoples may also refer to them by local languages. Maias and mawas are also used in Malay, but it is unclear if those words refer only to orangutans or to all apes in general.
The word was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orang-outang, and variants with -ng instead of -n as in the Malay original are found in many languages. This spelling (and pronunciation) has remained in use in English up to the present, but has come to be regarded as incorrect.
The name of the genus, Pongo, comes from a 16th century account by Andrew Battell, an English sailor held prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola, which describes two anthropoid "monsters" named Pongo and Engeco. It is now believed that he was describing gorillas, but in the late 18th century it was believed that all great apes were orangutans; hence Lacépède's use of Pongo for the genus.
Anatomy
Orangutans have a large, bulky body, a thick neck, very long, strong arms, short, bowed legs, and no tail. Orangutans are about 2/3 the size of the gorilla. They are mostly covered with long reddish-brown hair, although this differs between the species: Sumatran Orangutans have a sparser and lighter coloured coat.

The orangutan has a large head with a prominent mouth area. Adult males (sexually mature - 15yrs +) have large cheek flaps (which get larger as the ape ages) which show their dominance to other males and their readiness to mate to other females. The age of maturity for females is approximately 12 years old.
Orangutans have senses very similar to humans, including hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.
Orangutan hands are very much like humans. They have four long fingers plus an opposable thumb. Their feet have four long toes plus an opposable big toe. Orangutans can grasp things with both their hands and their feet. The largest males have an arm span of about 7.5 ft (2.3 m).
Ecology and appearance
Adult female orangutan
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees. Every night they fashion nests, in which they sleep, from branches and foliage. They are more solitary than the other apes, with males and females generally coming together only to mate. Mothers stay with their babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years. There is significant sexual dimorphism between females and males: females can grow to around 4 ft 2 in or 127 centimetres and weigh around 100 lbs or 45 kg, while flanged adult males can reach 5 ft 9 in or 175 centimetres in height and weigh over 260 lbs or 118 kg.
The arms of orangutans are twice as long as their legs. Much of the arm's length has to do with the length of the radius and the ulna rather than the humerus. Their fingers and toes are curved, allowing them to better grip onto branches. Orangutans have less restriction in the movements of their legs than humans and other primates, due to the lack of a hip joint ligament which keeps the femur held into the pelvis. Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, orangutans are not true knuckle-walkers, and walk on the ground by shuffling on their palms with their fingers curved inwards.
Diet
Fruit makes up 65% of the orangutan diet. Fruits with sugary or fatty pulp are favoured. Lowland Dipterocarp forests are preferred by orangutans because of their high fruit abundance, the same forests that provide excellent timber for the logging industry and good soil conditions for palm oil plantations. The fruit of fig trees are also commonly eaten since it is easy to both harvest and digest. Bornean orangutans are recorded to consume at least 317 different food items and include: young leaves, shoots, seeds and bark. Insects, honey and bird eggs are also included.
Orangutans are highly opportunistic foragers with the composition of their diet varying markedly from month to month. Bark as a source of nourishment is only consumed as a last resort in times of food scarcity, fruits always being the preferred choice.
Orangutans are thought to be the sole fruit disperser for some plant species including the climber species Strychnos ignatii which contains the toxic alkaloid strychnine. It does not appear to have any effect on orangutans except for excessive saliva production.
Geophagy, the practice of eating soil or rock, has been observed in orangutans. There are three main reasons for this dietary behaviour; for the addition of minerals nutrients to their diet; for the ingestion of clay minerals that can absorb toxic substances; or to treat a disorder such as diarrhoea.
Orangutans use plants of the genus Commelina as an anti-inflammatory balm.
Behaviour and language
Like the other great apes, orangutans are remarkably intelligent. Although tool use among chimpanzees was documented by Jane Goodall in the 1960s, it was not until the mid-1990s that one population of orangutans was found to use feeding tools regularly. A 2003 paper in the journal Science described the evidence for distinct orangutan cultures.
According to recent research psychologist Robert Deaner and his colleagues, orangutans are the world's most intelligent animal other than humans, with higher learning and problem solving ability than chimpanzees, which were previously considered to have greater abilities. A study of orangutans by Carel van Schaik, a Dutch primatologist at Duke University, found them capable of tasks well beyond chimpanzees’ abilities — such as using leaves to make rain hats and leak-proof roofs over their sleeping nests. He also found that, in some food-rich areas, the creatures had developed a complex culture in which adults would teach youngsters how to make tools and find food.

A two year study of orangutan symbolic capability was conducted from 1973-1975 by Gary L. Shapiro with Aazk, a juvenile female orangutan at the Fresno City Zoo (now Chaffee Zoo) in Fresno, California. The study employed the techniques of David Premack who used plastic tokens to teach the chimpanzee, Sarah, linguistic skills. Shapiro continued to examine the linguistic and learning abilities of ex-captive orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park, in Indonesian Borneo, between 1978 and 1980. During that time, Shapiro instructed ex-captive orangutans in the acquisition and use of signs following the techniques of R. Allen and Beatrix Gardner who taught the chimpanzee, Washoe, in the late-1960s. In the only signing study ever conducted in a great ape's natural environment, Shapiro home-reared Princess, a juvenile female who learned nearly 40 signs (according to the criteria of sign acquisition used by Francine Patterson with Koko, the gorilla) and trained Rinnie, a free-ranging adult female orangutan who learned nearly 30 signs over a two year period. For his dissertation study, Shapiro examined the factors influencing sign learning by four juvenile orangutans over a 15-month period.

The first orangutan language study program, directed by Dr. Francine Neago, was listed by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1988. The Orangutan language project at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., uses a computer system originally developed at UCLA by Neago in conjunction with IBM.

Zoo Atlanta has a touch screen computer where their two Sumatran Orangutans play games. Scientists hope that the data they collect from this will help researchers learn about socializing patterns, such as whether they mimic others or learn behavior from trial and error, and hope the data can point to new conservation strategies.

A 2008 study of two orangutans at the Leipzig Zoo showed that orangutans are the first non-human species documented to use 'calculated reciprocity' which involves weighing the costs and benefits of gift exchanges and keeping track of these over time.

Although orangutans are generally passive, aggression toward other orangutans is very common; they are solitary animals and can be fiercely territorial. Immature males will try to mate with any female, and may succeed in forcibly copulating with her if she is also immature and not strong enough to fend him off. Mature females easily fend off their immature suitors, preferring to mate with a mature male.

Orangutans usually do not swim, however they can be taught to swim and at least one population at a conservation refuge on Kaja island in Borneo have taught themselves to swim.
Orangutans have even shown laughter-like vocalizations in response to physical contact, such as wrestling, play chasing, or tickling.

[tcvarlh]

this is to tack on at the end :

Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus - northwest populations
Pongo pygmaeus morio - east populations
Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii - southwest populations
Sumatran Orangutan (P. abelii)

The populations on the two islands were classified as subspecies until recently, when they were elevated to full specific level, and the three distinct populations on Borneo were elevated to subspecies. The population currently listed as P. p. wurmbii may be closer to the Sumatran Orangutan than the Bornean Orangutan. If confirmed, abelii would be a subspecies of P. wurmbii (Tiedeman, 1808). Regardless, the type locality of pygmaeus has not been established beyond doubts, and may be from the population currently listed as wurmbii (in which case wurmbii would be a junior synonym of pygmaeus, while one of the names currently considered a junior synonym of pygmaeus would take precedence for the northwest Bornean taxon). To further confuse, the name morio, as well as various junior synonyms that have been suggested, have been considered likely to all be junior synonyms of the population listed as pygmaeus in the above, thus leaving the east Bornean populations unnamed.

In addition, a fossil species, P. hooijeri, is known from Vietnam, and multiple fossil subspecies have been described from several parts of south-eastern Asia. It is unclear if these belong to P. pygmaeus or P. abelii or, in fact, represent distinct species.
Conservation status

The Sumatran species is critically endangered and the Bornean species of orangutans is endangered[24] according to the IUCN Red List of mammals, and both are listed on Appendix I of CITES. The total number of Bornean orangutans is estimated to be less than 14% of what it was in the recent past (from around 10,000 years ago until the middle of the twentieth century) and this sharp decline has occurred mostly over the past few decades due to human activities and development. Species distribution is now highly patchy throughout Borneo: it is apparently absent or uncommon in the south-east of the island, as well as in the forests between the Rejang River in central Sarawak and the Padas River in western Sabah (including the Sultanate of Brunei). The largest remaining population is found in the forest around the Sabangau River, but this environment is at risk. Similar development have been observed for the Sumatran orangutans.

Fascinating to think they may be smarter than chimps, an animal I have always thought were a little insane.


h

[paul m]

That's all pretty comprehensive! Thanks.

Originally Posted by tcvarlh

...
Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus - northwest populations
Pongo pygmaeus morio - east populations
Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii - southwest populations
Sumatran Orangutan (P. abelii)

The populations on the two islands were classified as subspecies until recently, when they were elevated to full specific level, and the three distinct populations on Borneo were elevated to subspecies. The population currently listed as P. p. wurmbii may be closer to the Sumatran Orangutan than the Bornean Orangutan. If confirmed, abelii would be a subspecies of P. wurmbii (Tiedeman, 1808). Regardless, the type locality of pygmaeus has not been established beyond doubts, and may be from the population currently listed as wurmbii (in which case wurmbii would be a junior synonym of pygmaeus, while one of the names currently considered a junior synonym of pygmaeus would take precedence for the northwest Bornean taxon). To further confuse, the name morio, as well as various junior synonyms that have been suggested, have been considered likely to all be junior synonyms of the population listed as pygmaeus in the above, thus leaving the east Bornean populations unnamed.

In addition, a fossil species, P. hooijeri, is known from Vietnam, and multiple fossil subspecies have been described from several parts of south-eastern Asia. It is unclear if these belong to P. pygmaeus or P. abelii or, in fact, represent distinct species.
Conservation status

The Sumatran species is critically endangered and the Bornean species of orangutans is endangered[24] according to the IUCN Red List of mammals, and both are listed on Appendix I of CITES. The total number of Bornean orangutans is estimated to be less than 14% of what it was in the recent past (from around 10,000 years ago until the middle of the twentieth century) and this sharp decline has occurred mostly over the past few decades due to human activities and development. Species distribution is now highly patchy throughout Borneo: it is apparently absent or uncommon in the south-east of the island, as well as in the forests between the Rejang River in central Sarawak and the Padas River in western Sabah (including the Sultanate of Brunei). The largest remaining population is found in the forest around the Sabangau River, but this environment is at risk. Similar development have been observed for the Sumatran orangutans.

Yes, chimpanzees are a little too much like humans ...

Fascinating to think they may be smarter than chimps, an animal I have always thought were a little insane.

[paul m]

They shouldn't be fed unnatural sweets:
Fat orang-utan put on diet - Telegraph

[paul m]

Not necessarily a fact but this one seems to be caring for an animal of another species:
BBC News - Orangutan rescues coot chick from water at zoo in Dublin

[acerosalez]

Orangutan is the primate of the human beings. This is a scientifically proved aspect about the connection between humans and Orangutans. The sad fact about them is that they are on the verge of extinction. These animals are included in the list of endangered species of animals. They are the largest one among the arboreal animals living today. The main specialty of them is that they have a longer arm as compared to the other animals in the species. The brain of an Orangutan is almost as developed as that of the human beings.
The "facts on orangutan": they have a higher perception in the group of animals in their species. They are able to use their hands just like that of the humans. There is scientific proof that the development of the humans to a great civilization was possible due to the higher agility in using the thump of the arm. The Orangutans are also having a very similar structure as that of humans. This makes them able to handle things well. Another interesting fact about them is that they make their bed themselves with leaves and other foliage for sleeping.
Some Interesting Facts About Orangutans