Where do orangutans live?
Orangutans live in Indonesia and Malaysia on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These are the only places where they live in the wild.
BORNEO (ABOVE SUMATERAN)
How many types of orangutan are there?
There are two species or types of orangutan - the Bornean orangutan which is found on the island of Borneo and the Sumatran orangutan which is found on the island of Sumatra.
What does orangutan mean?
The word orangutan comes from the Malay language and means 'person of the forest' - from the words ‘orang' meaning people and ‘hutan' meaning forest.
Are orangutans apes or monkeys?
Orangutans are a Great Ape along with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. The Great Apes have large brains, forward-facing eyes and gripping hands. Humans are also Great Apes. In fact we share 96.4% of our genetic makeup with orangutans! The easiest way to distinguish between monkeys and apes is to look for a tail. Apes don't have tails whereas most monkeys do.
What do orangutans look like?
Male and female orangutans look quite different - they both have long red hair, but males are much bigger than females. Males can be 1.5m tall and weigh as much as 120kg. Females are much smaller. They grow up to 1m tall and weigh about 45kg.
Male orangutans grow a beard and moustache when they become adults, some male orangutans also grow cheek pads and throat pouches.
How long do orangutans live?
In the wild, orangutans may live up to 45 years or more. The oldest captive orangutan was a male called "Guas" at the Philadelphia Zoo who lived until he was 58 years old!
What do orangutans eat?
Orangutans eat mostly fruit - their favourites are huge spiky fruits called Durian, these fruits smell very bad, and taste a bit like custard and garlic, but orangutans love them! Orangutans also eat some flowers, honey, bark, leaves and insects.
Where do orangutans sleep?
Orangutans sleep in nests in the trees which they make every day from leaves and branches. Orangutans are arboreal, which means that they spend nearly all their time in the trees and hardly ever come to the ground. This makes them different from other apes like chimpanzees, gorillas and humans who all spend a lot of time on the ground.
Do orangutans live in groups
No, unlike the other great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans) orangutans do not like to live in groups. Female orangutans usually have 1 or 2 babies with them, but males are usually alone.
How many babies do orangutan s have?
Orangutans only have one baby at a time. There is a lot to learn about life in the forest and so babies stay with their mother and learn from her until they are 7 or 8 years old - this is longer than any other mammal except humans.
Do orangutans use tools?
Orangutans make umbrellas for themselves out of big leaves when it rains, and use sticks to get honey from beehives.
How many orangutans are there in the wild?
100 years ago there were 315,000 orangutans in the wild but today there are only 60,000. Only 7,000 of these remaining orangutans live in Sumatra.
It is thought that Sumatran orangutans may become extinct in the next 10 years unless people help to protect them.
Why are orangutans endangered?
Orangutans are losing their homes in the rainforest. Tropical rainforests are being cut down for wood to make paper and furniture and the land cleared to grow palm oil for using as fuel and as an ingredient in lots of foods. In Indonesia an area of forest the size of six football pitches is cut down every minute!!!
Orangutans are often shot when they go into palm oil and fruit farms because farmers see them as a pest.
Baby orangutans are also taken from their mothers to be sold
