Orangutans - The Man of the Forest

Orangutans - the man of the forest 

Have you ever noticed how similar humans look compared to orangutans? 97% of their DNA is the same as ours.  You may be thinking, how is a monkey, anything related to a human? These great monkeys aren’t monkeys at all; they are apes! 

 

 

Classification

Did you know that orangutan means “man of the forest” in the local Malay language? Their common scientific name for the orangutan is pongo. The Sumatran orangutan’s scientific name is pongo abelii, as the Bornean orangutan’s scientific name is pongo pygmaeus. These orangutans are mammals meaning they are warm-blooded vertebrates that drink milk when they are young, breathe air, and have a more well-developed brain than other types of animals. They belong to the family of primates.

 

 

Appearance

You may think that Bornean orangutans are the same as Sumatran orangutans, but that is not actually true! Sumatran orangutans have grey faces with bright orange hair.  while Bornean orangutans have dark brown faces with brownish-orange hair. The Bornean orangutan is also bald, unlike the Sumatran orangutan. The Sumatran orangutan also has a larger beard.

 

Diet

Orangutans are omnivores meaning that they eat plants and animals. 60% of their diet is made up of fruit, such as lychees, wild figs, and mangosteens. Occasionally, they will eat bird eggs and small invertebrates. Very rarely, they may be seen to eat small mammals such as squirrels and slow loris. 

 

 

Lifestyle and habitat

These great apes live in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. The Bornean orangutan lives only in the rainforests of Kuala Lumpur while the Sumatran orangutan lives in the central Kalimantan.

 

 

Why should we save them?

As humans have done for decades, they will continue to log the forest. Although, as orangutans eat from fruit trees, they will disperse the seeds which grow into trees. They are also known as the “gardeners of the rainforest,” because they disperse fruit trees that will eventually grow into trees. 

 

 

How can we save the orangutans?

1.      Orangutans can be bred in captivity, taken care of till they are ready to go out in the wild.

2.      We can donate to wildlife hospitals and organizations: all this money will go to planting trees, hospitals within the organization and for medical health needs such as vaccines. 

3.      Stop logging or decrease logging rate: this will create a place for the orangutans to live in. 

4.      We can adopt an orangutan: pay for its needs. 

5.      Volunteer to help in hospitals: they need all the help they can get. 

6.      his one is especially for kids- spread the word by telling others. 

7.      Avoid buying palm oil products: orangutans' homes are being logged to create palm oil plantations. 

8.      Reuse, reduce, recycle and repeat: this will create less reasons to log down the trees as paper is made from trees.

 

 

Fun facts

1.      The mother orangutan normally has only one baby at a time. 

2.      In the wild, they live for 30-40 years. In captivity they live for 50-60 years.

3.      Orangutans use dracaena leaves and make a paste with it in their mouth. Then they spit it out and apply it where their muscles hurt from swinging on vines. 

4.      A group of orangutans is called a congress. 

5.      Did you know that orangutans build a new nest every single night, fussy!

6.      Once, orangutans lived in Thailand, Vietnam and China. 

7.      A baby orangutan is called an offspring. 

8.      Some orangutans at zoos are taught to speak sign language to communicate with their owners. 

9.      It is believed that orangutan-like animals are our ancestors! 

10.   The exact population of the orangutans is unknown, though it is somewhere between 55,000 and 65,000 orangutans. This may seem like a lot, although if I told you there are 7.9 billion humans on the planet then, you would know they are incredibly endangered.