Orangutan Facts

Orangutans are highly intelligent with an ability to reason and think.

This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same DNA as humans.

Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape "Orang Hutan" literally translating into English as "People of the Forest".

In times past people would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.

Orangutans are unique in the ape world. There are four kinds of great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from Asia; the others all come from Africa. There are two separate species of orangutan - the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Here is a map showing the density of population in their respective homes:

The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is actually the largest tree living mammal in the world. The rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping nests in the trees, but are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the ground).

The hair color of the orangutan, a bright reddish brown, is unique in the ape world.

An orangutan's lifespan is about 35-40 years in the wild, and sometimes into the 50's in captivity. They reach puberty at about 8 years of age, but a female isn't ready for her own baby until she's in her teens.

Males often weigh over 200 pounds, where females are 1/3 to 1/2 his size .

The males generally remain solitary until they encounter a female who is receptive to mating. They will stay with the female for several days to ensure a successful mating but will soon resume their solitary life. Due to their large size, males will more often travel on the ground than females.

The orangutan has the ability to travel between the treetops. They make their homes in these trees and make nests, out of leaves and branches, each night. These treetops can be upto 100 feet high.

Almost all of the food they eat grows in the treetops and the frequent rains fill the leaves thus supplying their drinking water. When water is difficult to get, they chew leaves to make a sponge to soak up water in tree cavities.

When it rains very hard the orangutan makes an umbrella for himself out of big leaves.

The orangutan has the longest childhood dependence on the mother of any animal in the world, because there is so much for a young orangutan to learn in order to survive. The babies nurse until they are about six years of age.

Orangutan females only give birth about once every 8 years - the longest time between births of any mammal on earth. (This results in only 4 to 5 babies in her lifetime.) This is why orangutan populations are very slow to recover from disturbance.

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