Orangutan in Borne

Orangutan in Borne

Orangutan is an exclusive species of great apes from Asia. To be more accurate they are native of Indonesia. They are divided into two more species which are Bornean/Kalimantan : orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) which can only be found in rain forest in Borneo/Kalimantan and Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) which can only be found in Sumatra’s rain forest. The Bornean orangutan itself is divided into three other more species. As for this article, we will be more focused on Bornean orangutan.

Anatomy and Physiology

Orangutan’s hair is typically brown and somewhat reddish with black skin. The difference between male and female can be found in both size and appearance. Male orangutan has bigger size compared to that of female. This difference is actually quite significant as the adult male can grow up to 175 cm with weight more than 118 kg, while in the other hand adult female can only grow around 127 cm in height and about 45, 4 kg in weight.

Orangutan has a prominent mouth area. In addition to that, male orangutans have distinctive cheek pads/flap as well as can make long calls that used to intimidate rivals and attract other females. The difference in appearance of that Bornean and Sumatran orangutan is that Sumatran orangutans are typically smaller with lighter color of hair. More than that, regarding to some research it is found that Sumatran orangutan has more genetic variant compared to that of Bornean.

Ecology and Behavior

Orangutan is considered as the most arboreal great ape. They spend most of their time in trees, and rarely set their foot on the ground. Even to move from tree to tree, they just swing from one after another except there is no way of moving from above, they likely won’t come down. The reasons why they spend most time on trees is because 65-90% of their diet is from fruits, while the rest can be of shoots, leaves or even bird eggs.

As for orangutans behavior on social living compared to other great apes is the most solitary. Their social structure is considered as semi-solitary. They may be found travel in small group but mostly will be travelling alone, especially the males. Interaction between male and male orangutan is tend to be hostile toward each other, while female and female interaction range from friendly to antagonistic.