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Region: Indomalaya Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Pongo Scientific Name: Pongo pygmaeus abelii
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Description:
The orangutan has a strong heavily built body. The head is set on a very thick neck. The abdomen is round and protuberant. The arms are long and powerful and reach to the ankles when the animal stands erect. The hands are long and narrow as are the fingers. There is a small thumb on each hand that is opposable to the first digit. The legs are relatively short, bowed at the ankles and are weaker than the arms. The great toe is very short and the long narrow foot, which is articulated obliquely to the leg, is longer than the hand and is longer than any other ape's hand. Males are much larger and heavier than the females and the mature male adult are also identified by large cheek flanges and pronounced throat pouches. The forehead on the orangutan is high and the snout bulging. The ears are small and flat. The lips are broad and extremely mobile, when eating and drinking the animal can thrust them quite far out. The lower jaw retreats at once from the lips and there is therefore no chin. Like humans the orangutan has a set of 32 teeth with two much larger canine teeth.
Height: 1.25 - 1.50 m.
Weight: 50-90 kg (male); 30-50 kg (female)
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Distribution:
The island of Sumatra
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Habitat:
Tropical rainforest
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Food:
Orangutans are omnivorous; they eat both plants and animals. Though their item of choice is fruit, they also feed on leaves, nuts, shoots, insects, and, when they can catch them, young birds and small mammals.
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Reproduction and Development:
The female estrous cycle averages about 30 days. She gives birth to a single young (twins are known but rare) which is born after a gestation period 233-265 days. The infant weighs 1.6 - 1.9 kg. (3-4 lbs.) at birth and is totally helpless. The young clings to the ventral surface of the female until nearly a year old and may still ride on the mother at about two and half years. Weaning is usually completed at 3 or 4 years but the mother feeds the infant with thoroughly prechewed food at an early date. At one year of age the young orang is able to eat solid food. At 4 years old, the youngster becomes independent but will spend the next two or three years close together with it’s mother before taking off into the rainforest on its own. Orangutans have a slow growth rate, somewhat comparable to humans and do not reach sexual maturity until about 7 years of age for females and shortly thereafter for males. However, males do not attain full physical and social maturity and hence reproductive capability until 13-15 years or more. The inter-birth interval is generally about 3-4 years (females do not conceive during the 3 to 4 year nursing period) therefore they are only able to bear 4 or 5 young during their lifetime. The life span of the orangutan in the wild is around 30-45 years and about 50 years in captivity.
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Adaptations:
Orangutans are uniquely adapted for their arboreal lifestyle. Long arms and long, hooked hands permit orangutans to reach distant branches and to employ a "hookgrip", its principal grip in locomotion. Orangutans are said to have four hands instead of two hands and two feet. They have a truly opposable thumb, so that the forefeet are really like hands. This interdigital grip allows them to pick fruit or grasp slender branches. As well, the big toe is also opposable, the grasping feet often lending extra support on the lower branches. In combination with their tremendous strength, this gives the orangutan the remarkable ability to swing through the forest treetops, and even hang upside-down from branches for long periods of time, in order to retrieve fruit. The orangutan rarely comes down from the treetops and when on the ground, walking is very slow and awkward. They walk on all four limbs, using the knuckle pads on the back of the digits of the hands. Orangutans are active during the day and build nests each night in which they sleep. The nests are made out of leaves and branches, simply folded over vegetation, without weaving or knotting and sometimes as much as 30 meters above the ground.
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Threats to Survival:
Man. The forest habitat is being rapidly destroyed by conversion to agriculture, both by large commercial plantations and smaller subsistence farms. At the same time, humans are selectively killing adult females in order to obtain live juveniles for the animal pet trade.
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Status:
Critically endangered
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Zoo Diet:
Gelatin diet (a.k.a. gorilla fudge), Mazuri leaf eater biscuits, four fruits (bananas, grapes, mango, and pear), eight vegetables (celery, nappa, collards, Swiss chard, carrot or beet, cauliflower, green beans, and potatoes), and bran muffins.
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Animal Fact Sheet
The New Tundra Trek