Orangutan

The orangutans are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair native to Malaysia and Indonesia. They are the only extant species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae, although that subfamily also includes the extinct Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus genera. The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia. Their name in Malay means Man of the Woods.}}

Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees, making a new nest in the trees every night. Adult males are about 4.5 ft (1.4 m) tall and up to 180 lb (82 kg) in weight. They are only found in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Conservation Status

Orangutans are highly endangered in the wild. Orangutan habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. Much of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development. There is also a major problem with the illegal trapping of baby orangutans for sale into the pet trade; the trappers usually kill the mother to steal the baby. Major conservation centres in Borneo include those at Semenggok in Sarawak, and Sepilok near Sandakan in Sabah.

Behaviour

Like the other great apes, orangutans are remarkably intelligent. Although tool use among chimpanzees was documented by Jane Goodall in the 1960s, it wasn't 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.

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. Wild orangutans are known to visit human-run facilities for orphaned young orangutans released from illegal captivity, interacting with the orphans and probably helping them adapt in their return to living in the wild.

Terminology

The word orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Malay orang hutan meaning man of the forest, although local people do not use this term to refer to orangutans. 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 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 by some, e.g. ^*. However, dictionaries such as the American Heritage Dictionary regard forms with -ng as acceptable variants.

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" (probably somewhere near the mouth of the Congo River), 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.

Species

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

The populations on the two isolated 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.

In popular culture

Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book added an orangutan called King Louie to Rudyard Kipling's original cast of anthropomorphic characters. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels feature an orangutan as The Librarian of the Unseen University.

References

External links

ARKive - images and movies of the Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus)
ARKive - images and movies of the Sumatran orang-utan (Pongo abelii)
Bagheera Information on the Orangutan and other endangered animals.
The Orangutan Network - Documents Orangutan cultural variation / traditions and also conservation efforts.
Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Sepilok, Sandakan - Photos and videos of the oldest Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in the world
Bohorok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center Bukit Lawang
Information from Grungy Ape on the difference between the two Orang-utan species
OrionSociety.org - 'Does an orangutan find Freedom in the Gift of Words? Do We?'
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center Photos - Photos from a rehabilitation center in Borneo, Malaysia
Ziggy the orangutan Sabah, East Malaysia
Sumatran Orangutan Society International non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Sumatran orangutans
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."
Orangutan Tropical Peatland Research Project non-profit organization dedicated to studying and conserving orangutans in the Sebangau National Park,. Kalimantan."
Primate Info Net Pongo Factsheet
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK Part of a worldwide group dedicated to saving and preserving Orangutans in Borneo
WWF Heart of Borneo conservation initiative - Information about the Heart of Borneo - 220,000 km² of upland montane tropical rainforest, where endangered species such as the orang-utan, rhinoceros and pygmy elephant cling for survival.

Apes

Fauna of Indonesia | Fauna of Malaysia

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