Orangutan

Orangutans (Pongo) are great apes belonging to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. There are two species of orangutan. They are from Southeast Asia. There are very few of them left, because loss of the jungle has reduced their habitat. There are orangutans on view at the Singapore zoo.

Orangutan
Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Primates
Family:	Hominidae
Subfamily:	Ponginae
Genus:	Pongo Lacépède, 1799
Type species
Pongo pygmaeus Lacépède, 1799 (Simia satyrus Linnaeus, 1760)
Species
Pongo pygmaeus Pongo abelii Pongo tapanuliensis Pongo hooijeri† Pongo weidenreichi†
Range of the three extant species
Synonyms
Faunus Oken, 1816 Lophotus Fischer, 1813 Macrobates Billberg, 1828 Satyrus Lesson, 1840

Orangutan climbing

The name orangutan comes from two Malay words, orang which means person, and hutan which means forest; so orangutan means person of the forest.

Taxonomy

• Genus Pongo
  • Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus
  • Sumatran orangutan, Pongo abelii
  • Tapanuli orangutan, Pongo tapanuliensis

• 

  Bornean orangutan

• 

  Sumatran Orangutan

• 

  Tapanuli Orangutan

Evolutionary tree of the superfamily Hominoidea. It highlights the subfamily Homininae. First the gibbons (Hylobatidae) split from the main line some 18 million years ago. Next, the subfamily Ponginae broke away—leading to the current orangutan. Later the Homininae split into the tribe Hominini (with subtribes Hominina and Panina), and the tribe Gorillini

Appearance

Orangutans have red-brown hair. They have long arms. They can be strong like chimpanzees, gorillas and humans. They also have hands that are good for climbing. The Sumatran Orangutan is smaller and has longer hair than the Bornean orangutan. Orangutans have suffered from forest loss and are on the very edge of extinction.

Life

Orangutans are from the rainforests on the islands Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. They mostly live up in the trees. They eat fruit, leaves and bark and also insects and bird eggs. They drink water from rain that has been collected in leaves. Orangutans are not comfortable on the ground since they have to push themselves along with fists. Heavy adults move carefully through the trees, using their flexible feet to grasp the tree branches. Smaller orangutans swing with more ease.

Diet

An orangutan's diet consists mainly of fruit, they like ripe fruit. If they cannot find fruit they will eat bark, leaves and termites, rather than move to somewhere else to get food. About 60% of an orangutan's diet is fruit, 25% is leaves, 10% is bark and flowers, and 5% is termites and other insects.

Pregnancy

After a pregnancy of 230–260 days the female gives birth to usually one baby, but sometimes two, every eight to nine years. The little ones stay with their mother for years, riding on their mother's back and learning to move through the forest. The young orangutans are playful and affectionate. When they are five or six years old, they become more independent and eventually go off on their own.

Orangutan Media

• 

  Flanged male Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans

• 

  Fossil skull of Sivapithecus sivalensis, an extinct relative of orangutan

• 

  Adult male (left) and female Tapanuli orangutans

• 

  Skeleton of subadult Bornean orangutan

• Wild orangutan in the Danum Valley (Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo island)

• 

  Although orangutans may consume leaves, shoots, and bird eggs, fruit is the most important part of their diet.

• 

  Orangutans are the least social of the great apes.

• 

  Mother orangutan with young

• 

  An orangutan lying in its nest

• An orangutan imitating human speech

Related pages

• Ape

Other websites

• Primate Info Net Pongo Factsheet
• Information from Grungy Ape on the difference between the two Orang-utan species Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine
• OrionSociety.org Archived 2007-02-08 at the Wayback Machine - 'Does an orangutan find Freedom in the Gift of Words? Do We?'
• Orang utan language project Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Facial Expression & Vocalizations
• Orangutan Foundation International non-profit organization dedicated to "support the conservation and understanding of the orangutan and its rain forest habitat while caring for ex-captive individuals as they make their way back to the forest."
• Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative non-profit organization whose mission is to secure the future of the orangutan through programs of education and outreach in Indonesia.
• The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
• Sumatran Orangutan Society International non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Sumatran orangutans