Orangutans , Description, Distribution, Habitat, Diet, Reproduction, Behavior, Threats, Lifespan, Interesting facts, and Species of Orangutans

Description of Orangutans

Red forest monkeys orangutans live in the tropical and swampy forests of the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These red-haired monkeys are the largest tree mammal and the only great ape found in Asia. The other great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) are all native to Africa.

Long flowing red hair covers most of the gray skin of an orangutan. Her chubby body has a flexible pelvis, a thick neck, and arched legs. The arms of the orangutan are longer than the legs and reach almost to the ankles when the monkey gets up. Like other monkeys, orangutans do not have a tail. 

Orangutans spend most of their lives in trees, confidently swinging from branch to branch. Their long fingers and toes can easily grab branches and vines. With longer body arms, long, strong fingers, and grasping feet, life in trees suits them well. 

In fact, orangutans look a little clumsy on the floor, use their arms like a pair of crutches or raise these arms above their heads when walking. Adult females are smaller than adult males.

There are two different types of adult male orangutans: gray and unrestrained. Male bridles have prominent cheekbones called bridles and a throat sac used to make strong verbalizations called "long calls". They also have a long layer of black hair on their backs.

The male without a bridle looks like an adult female. Breeding and a male without flanges can switch to a male with flanges for reasons that are not yet fully understood. 

Male orangutans can tip the scales at 90 kg, while females weigh from 30 to 50 kg.

Distribution of Orangutans

Each orangutan species has a slightly different distribution area, and they are all threatened with extinction and are extremely rare in their distribution area. Year after year, the number of usable habitats decreases, and the range of these creatures decreases.

The species Borneo occurs on the island of Borneo, mainly on the east and south coasts. The Sumatran subspecies exist, you guessed it, Sumatra! Unfortunately, the destruction of their habitat limited them to the northwestern tip of the island. Finally, tapanuli species vary only in the south from Tapanuli to Sumatra.

Species of Orangutans

There are three types of orangutans-Borneo, Sumatra, and tapanuli, which differ somewhat in appearance and behavior. Borneo and Sumatran species have hairy reddish fur, and Sumatran orangutans have longer facial hair.

Sumatran Orangutan: 

He lives in Sumatra. The fur is longer and lighter than that of the Borneo orangutans. The cheekbones of the adult male called bridles, form stiff semicircles on the sides of the face, and men and females often develop beards as they grow older. 

Borneo Orangutan: 

He lives in Borneo. Adult males have much larger flanges and a large pocket for the neck. Hair is shinier, and females rarely have beards. Borneo orangutans are heavier than Sumatran orangutans.

Orangutan Tapanuli: 

The southernmost orangutan population of Sumatra. This species, described in 2017, is subtly but consistently different from the other two species: it has a slightly smaller skull, a flatter face, and different dimensions of the skull, jaw, and teeth. Compared to other Sumatran species, tapanuli orangutans have shorter, frizzier and cinnamon-colored hair.

Within the three species, there are two morphs of mature male orangutans, and it is easy to distinguish them. A man with padded or tilted cheeks has large fleshy pads on the sides of his face and a large throat pouch under his chin. It is more likely that she has facial hair, and the hair on her back is growing strongly.

Habitat of Orangutans

Orangutans spend most of their lives in trees, swinging from branch to branch with their long arms. Usually, they build a new nest every night, but sometimes they can reuse one. Monkeys also use deciduous branches to protect themselves from rain and sun, and sometimes they cover leaves as big as a poncho!

Sumatran orangutans, especially the youngest, have to take care of tigers, as well as other predators, such as clouded leopards, large pythons, and crocodiles. To stay on the safe side, they usually spend more time in trees than Borneo orangutans, who do not have these predators on their island, so they can spend more time safely on land.

Diet of Orangutans

Orangutans eat many ripe fruits, up to 100 species.
 Figs with a durian fruit are the most common. When fruits are scarce, they eat leaves, ants and other insects, flowers, bark, honey, termites, and even bird eggs. Your mornings and afternoons are dedicated to the search for these foods, with a nap during the midday heat. 

Sometimes several mothers and their cubs are in their overlapping bands near a fruit tree. They feed peacefully together and watch their children play. However, adult men usually do not care about companionship, especially other men. 

Although monkeys get a lot of water from the fruits and other plants they eat, they also drink water. They lick water from tree hollows, damp plants, and even from the skin of the arms.

Reproduction of Orangutans

Orangutans have a reproductive cycle similar to humans. Since the reproductive stage, a female orangutan lasts about nine months, or a similar duration lasts since the reproductive stage of a human AMMEA. Female orangutans also resemble human females, since both do not show external signs of heat or menstruation, and their reproductive cycles last about 30 days.

An orangutan female usually gives birth to only one calf at a time and usually occurs every 6-7 years. Be in constant contact with your children in the first year of life and stay in constant contact with your children for the first 7 years of life. The process of reproduction of orangutans is very expensive since feeding is a difficult task without worrying about the metabolic needs of a child.

Juvenile orangutans weigh between 1.5 and 2 kg at birth and remain under 25 kg for the first 6 to 7 years of their life. Young orangutans have the longest immaturity of all monkeys, which lasts from 9 to 12 years and consists of three stages of development: infancy, adolescence, and adolescence. Once the orangutan is in adulthood or the birth of his first child at 14 or 16 years old. Some females gave birth to children in captivity at the age of 7, and some females gave birth to children in captivity at the age of 6 or 5.

A male orangutan attacks adulthood when the pouch gives a larynx, hot flashes, and persistent swelling occur, or it's usually 18-20 years old. Males show a two-stage maturity with a sub-adult stage at the age of about 10 years and last for 15 years, at the same time 19 or 20 years.

Orangutans breed slowly, as evidenced by fierce competition for males, which can be found in the form of females. The main consequence of this life cycle is that it can take decades for the lost orangutan populations to be replaced. On the other hand, the mating process is not a mating process. Against men who want men, with those who want men. This process can lead to forced copulation, which is often called "rape". Subadult men often intend to marry adults, in which a larger adult male mates with concordant smaller males. Some biologists argue that this process led to the sexual dimorphism observed in orangutan species.

Behavior of Orangutans

Orangutan means" person from the forest" in Malay. They live in primary and secondary forests. Although they can be found up to 1, 500 m above sea level, most of them are located in lowland areas, preferring forests in river valleys or floodplains.

Orangutans travel from tree to tree and usually avoid going ashore. But when they do, they move on all fours, putting their clenched fists on the floor.

Orangutans make a green nest to sleep at night and rest in smaller hammocks during the day.

Adults are usually solitary, although temporary aggregations occasionally form. The large domestic spheres of men overlap with the spheres of several adult women. Adult males are usually hostile to each other, although they do not show any territory.

Threats of Orangutans

In the media, between 2000 and 3000 orangutans die every year. Although the exact population of Mizo counts, it is estimated that the current numbers range from 50,000 to 65,000 abandoned orangutans in the wild.

At this rate of loss, many experts believe that orangutans could disappear in the wild in less than 50 years.

Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely. The economic crisis combined with natural disasters and human forest abuse takes two of the most premature cousins of mankind.

There are  main threats to the survival of orangutans today:

* Habitat loss due to

* Palm oil plantations

* Illegal fishing

* Illegal trade in pets

Lifespan of Orangutans

in the wild can live orangutans up to 50 years. The females reproduce for the first time between 10 and 15 years. They give birth at most every 5 years, and the interval between children can be up to 10 years.

Interaction between orangutans and humans

Habitat destruction from palm oil plantations is not the only threat facing these great apes. Hunting is a serious threat to the survival of all three orangutan species. The natives will kill orangutans and other jungle creatures for bushmeat, despite the safety measures put in place to save people.

They will also kill monkeys in retaliation to protect their crops. The pet trade is also a big problem. Not only are babies being sold as pets, but this also requires killing their mothers to make it easier for people to catch babies. Due to all these activities, the three species, Sumatra, Borneo, and Tapanuli, are in danger of extinction.

Domestication of Orangutans

Humans have not domesticated orangutans.

Is an orangutan a good pet?

No, orangutans do not make good pets. They are endangered and each animal is important to the survival of the species, which is why it is highly illegal to keep an orangutan as a pet.

Interesting facts about Orangutans

1. There are 3 types of orangutans

Borneo, Sumatra, and the newly confirmed new samples (as of 2017), The Tapanui. These great apes are found only in the wild on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. 

2. Orangutans are the heaviest animals that live in

They spend most of their lives on the peaks and need long distances along the forest to find enough food and partners. 

3. They've got long arms

The orangutans t-dimensionally extend their length by about 2.2 m  from the tip to the fingertips. 

While the height of her hair is about 1. 5 m is an impressive range. Their arms are so long that they are one and a half times longer than their legs and extend to the ankles when standing. 

4. They don't mind eating with their feet

Orangutans are incredibly dexterous and use both hands and feet while gathering food and traveling through the trees.

Like us, orangutans have four fingers and a thumb, and fingernails. Their feet look almost exactly the same as their hands – designed for agile climbing and gripping. 

5. We learn everything you need to know 

Young orangutans stay with their mother at the age of 7. They spend this time learning everything from her, including what is good to eat. 

Babies are mothers who are so attached that they climb on their bodies and sleep on their children until they develop their own abilities to survive on their own. 

6. Males are majestic 

Some adult male orangutans develop remnants of adipose tissue on both sides of their face in the form of flanges, which develop at the age of about 35 years when they are fully mature. 

7. They build nests to sleep in

Orangutans love to feel comfortable for free. They make a sleeping platform or, nests every night. 

8. Some orangutans use tools 

As you may have seen on our planet, some Sumatran orangutans use tools such as sticks to shoot termites, ants, or bees from intramural holes. 

It has also been observed that these intelligent creatures feed a" glove " of leaves to deal with prickly fruits or prickly branches. 

9. They have a smelly taste in food 

Orangutans mainly eat fruits such as mangoes, lychees, and figs, but also feed on young leaves, flowers, insects, and even small mammals. Fruits make up about 60% of the diet of an orangutan, but if they are rarer, it eats some weird-sounding things, like soil and tree bark.

10. Orangutans are under threat  

It is estimated that more than 100,000 Borneo orangutans were lost between 1999 and 2015. The main threat is the loss and fragmentation of its forest habitat, caused by logging, forest fires, and the creation of oil palm plantations. 

As palm oil, it produces palm oil-an edible vegetable oil which is used in many products, from toothpaste to pizza. Indonesia and Malaysia account for more than 85% of the world's palm oil supply.