Orangutans
By Summer
Introduction
These warm blooded mammals are nearly extinct, of course, their name is the Orangutan or 'people of the forest'. They are one of our most close and intelligent primate.
Threats
Orangutans are under threat all the time, such threats include, logging and deforestation. All the bare patches where there was logging and deforestation there is palm oil plants instead of the natural trees that would have benn an orangutans home. Three quarters of the population live outside protected areas so their young get caught and sold as pets.
Diet
Orangutans diets include lots of things. They are known to eat over four hundred different types of foods, including bark, leaves, fruits and insects or sometimes small animals. Orangutans primary food source is figs. They spend up to six hours eating or foraging for food. Orangutans can go on a starvation diet eating only leaves, bark young shoots or roots. They strip leaves from branches by running their teeth along the branch.
Behaviour
Orangutans in captivity often imitate humans doing every day things. At night in the wild orangutans make a 'nest'. They do this by first pulling in big leafy branches for the base or mattress, then they pull in smaller leafier twigs and beaches and tie them together at the tip. They have been known to make pillows, blankets or roofs on rainy nights, and sometimes even bunks! Orangutans are usually solitary animals but sometimes travel in small groups. Sometimes an Orangutan will let another share a fruit tree with them if there is enough for both of them.
Reproduction
Female orangutans only give birth to one young. Males and females only ever meet to mate. Young stay with their mother droop to eight years. Young orangutans are weaned at seven years old and spend the next year learning how to survive on their own. Males are mature enough to mate at about fifteen years of age.
Apearance
Male orangutans have big cheek flaps on the side of their head. They also have big sacks underneath their chin which they fill with air to make big loud booming calls which they use to either ward off any other male that is starting to ventur too close to their territory or to find mates. Orangutans have long orange coloured hair. They have long strong arms and hand like feet. Orangutans are the largest endangered animals in Borneo and Sumatra.
Habitat
These primates live in low, dense, fertile forests. They only live in two countries; Borneo and Sumatra. Orangutans prefer their homes near waterways or lowlands because of their high dependence on fruit.
Other
You know if an orangutans nest is old or new because new ones are mostly green leaves and old ones are all brown. The total population of orangutans in Summer is about eleven thousand. Orangutans are humans most closest and most intelligent primates. Orangutans have thirty-two teeth, the same as humans! Orangutan means 'people of the forest'. An adult males outstretched arms can measure up to two metres in length from finger-tip to finger-tip. Orangutans are the largest arboreal (tree dwelling) mammal in the world. Orangutans are so flexible that they can groom almost any part of their body. Orangutans that live in Sumatra are called 'Pongo Abelit', orangutans that live in Borneo are called 'Pongo Pygmaeus'. Orangutans are also known to use tools such as leaves for cups or a stick to get ants or honey out of a hole.