ORANG UTAN

ORANG UTAN

The continuous reduction of the rainforest for agricultural land is a great threat to the Orang Utan. They are  a shy animal and lives solitary. Orang Utan means big man of the forest in Malayan language.

There are one species orang utan and nine species of gibbons are members of the ape family. They inhabit the jungle of south-east Asia’s mainland and islands and therefore known as Asian apes.  The agile gibbons are lesser apes but the orang utan is a beautiful example of the great apes.

The orang utan is one species but the group which lives in Borneo differs slightly from the one living in Sumatra. The Sumatran orang utan is thinner, paler and has long hair and a longer face.

SUMATRAN
ORANG UTAN 

The orang utan has a long, red, shaggy hair the faces bare but for the Sumatran male which has a long beard. The adult male is almost twice the size of the female. It is even more emphasised by the development of great, fleshy flanges on both sides of the face, a high fatty crown on the top of his head. He also has a large throat sack from which he produces his loud call. When the male matures his hairs are getting darker.

The orang utan’s long arms help him to swing through he trees. His method of swinging he reaches out from one branch and gets hold of another. He then shakes it vigorously until the whole trees sways to make sure the branch is strong enough to support his weight. His feet are very much like his hands and look like his fingers.

BORNEO ORANG UTAN

The orang utan is different to the ape species in such that he is almost solitary. Only the female has a lasting contact with her offsprings. Adult males establish their own territory but are not very particular about it.  They also wander across their own boundaries. When adults meet in some area they either ignore each other or they can have a noisy and violent confronting.

The orang utan moves around and eats during the day. Although his weight is heavy but they spend most of the time in the trees. They also make a nest in the tree with branches and leaves to sleep in. They bend and weave a number of branches together and then build their nest on it.  Older males spend more time on the ground floor. It is assumed that their great weight is stopping them to climb up into the trees.

They spend most of their day time eating and mainly fruit. Their strong jaws are able to break open shells of the favourite fruit. They have great variety of food such as leaves nuts, shoots, tree bark, insects, birds’ eggs, birds and mammals,

The orange Utah highly developed memory helps him to know where the fruit trees are and the season of the year.

BREEDING

The male has several females in his territory. When one of them is ready to mate they stay together over several weeks, mating several times.  The moment the female is pregnant they split and don’t want to know each other any more. However, the male will move to other females and mate again.

The female has one single young and the gestation period is 260-270 days.  The young one stays with the mother and clinging to its fur. It will be weaned after three years. It will stay with the mother until she is pregnant again. This will be normally after five years. The female can give birth to young ones till she is 30 years old.

The youngster will then go off and establish a territory of their own but still keeping in contact and play with each other. When they are 10 or 15 years old and they are fully matured they move on.

The mature male is known for its spectacularly loud and long call. He then tares branches off and throws them to the ground.  The calls start with a low-pitched sound then it gets gradually louder and louder eventually it reaches a crescendo of a long bellows which then ends into a low-pitch sound again.  This can last for one to three minutes. It is assumed that it is an advertisement to attract sexually receptive females. .