Orangutan Facts

Orangutans are great apes, as opposed to monkeys, and are closely related to humans, having 97% of DNA in common.

Orangutans are extremely patient and intelligent mammals. They are very observant and inquisitive, and there are many stories of orangutans escaping from zoos after having watched their keepers unlock and lock doors.

Height: males - about 1.5m; females - about 1.2m
Weight: males - 93 to 130 kg; females – 48 to 55 kg
Life Span: 60 years or more
Gestation: about 8.5 months
Number of Young at Birth: usually 1, very rarely 2

Both the Sumatran species(Pongo abelii),Tapanuli species (Pongo tapanuliensis) and the Bornean species (Pongo pygmaeus) are classified as Critically Endangered according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The orangutans' rainforest habitats are disappearing at an alarming rate due to deforestation and clearing of the land for unsustainable monocultures, such as pulp paper and palm oil plantations, also mining, with the remaining forest degraded by drought and forest fires.

• Logging is an obvious problem for orangutans who spend their lives in trees.
• Fires endanger the orangutans and the smoke confuses them leaving them vulnerable to death from loss of habitat (food). Fires are commonly started to clear the land and undergrowth for mining and plantations.
• Unsustainable Monocultures are producing products such as palm oil and pulp paper, for leading suppliers for a global market. These plantations replace tropical rainforests, killing Endangered species, uprooting local communities, and contributing to Climate Change. The orangutans that are displaced starve to death, are killed by plantation workers as pests, or die in the fires.
• Poaching orangutan infants and hunting for meat also threatens the species. Mothers, often made vulnerable by land clearing, are often killed for their babies, which are then sold on the black market for pets as they are cute. Babies cling to their mothers and suckle their mother’s milk until the age of 8 years. Rescued infants are then rehabilitated by volunteers at orangutan rescue centres. To support and help with the care of these infants, you can Adopt an Orphan for as little as USD$11 a month.

Hundreds of rehabilitated orangutans have been released into the forest areas to date through TOP's support. 

PLAYFUL FACTS

In Malay and Indonesian orang means "person" and utan is derived from hutan, which means "forest." Thus, orangutan literally means "person of the forest."

Orangutans' arms stretch out longer than their bodies - over two metres from fingertip to fingertip - and are used to employ a "hookgrip". When on the ground, they walk on all fours, using their palms or their fists.

When male orangutans reach maturity, they develop large cheek pads, which female orangutans apparently find attractive.

When males are fighting, they charge at each other and break branches. If that doesn't scare one of them away, they grapple and bite each other.

For the first 4-6 years of his/her life, an infant orangutan holds tight to his/her mother's body as she moves through the forest in search of fruit.

Like humans, orangutans have opposable thumbs. Their big toes are also opposable.

Orangutans have tremendous strength, which enables them to swing from branch to branch and hang upside-down from branches for long periods of time to retrieve fruit and eat young leaves.