August 19th, every year is set as
International Orangutan Day! This event is to help encourage the public to take
action in preserving this amazing species. Orangutan is a large ape of
Borneo and Sumatra that lives in trees, eats mostly fruit, leaves, and other
plant matter, and has very long arms, long reddish brown hair, and a nearly
hairless face.
Orangutan, or orang,
Genus (Pongo, family Hominidae) of arboreal great ape, found only in
the lowland swamp forests of Borneo and Sumatra but originally in the tropical
forests of South Asia as well. The orangutan (Malaysian for “person of the
forest”) has a short thick body, long arms, short legs, and shaggy reddish
hair. Males are about 4.5 ft (137 cm) tall and weigh about 185 lb (85 kg);
females are smaller. Orangutans are placid, deliberate, ingenious, and
persistent. Males have flat fatty cheekpads and a baglike pendulous swelling at
the throat. Orangutans use all four limbs to walk and climb. They eat mostly
figs and other fruits and some leaves, bark, and insects. They sleep in trees
on a platform built of interwoven branches. Adults are solitary and live far
apart, coming together only for a brief courtship. The mother carries and
nurses the single young for almost three years. Though generally silent, the
adult male has a loud roaring “long call.” Each of the three known orangutan
species is critically endangered.
Orangutans
are the largest arboreal animals, spending more than 90 percent of their waking
hours in the trees.
During the day most of their time is divided equally between resting and
feeding. Orangutans are predominantly ripe-fruit eaters, although they consume
more than 400 different types of food, including invertebrates and,
on rare and opportunistic occasions, meat. Almost every night
orangutans construct a sleeping platform in the trees by bending and breaking
branches, leaves, and twigs. Unlike the African apes, orangutans frequently
use vegetation to protect themselves from the rain.
Orangutans are “gardens” of the forest,
playing a vital role in seed dispersal in their habitats. They live in tropical
forest and prefer forest in river valleys and floodplains of their respective
islands. orangutans’ extremely low reproductive rate makes their populations
highly vulnerable. Females give birth to one infant at a time about 3-5 years,
so these species can take long time to recover from population declines. With
human pressure only increasing orangutans face an increasing risk of
extinction. From 1992-2000, the population of the Sumatran orangutan is
considered to have declined by more than 50%. Its relative, the Bornean
orangutan population fell nearly 43 percent in the past decade, from 35,000 in
1996 to 20,000 in 2006. Since these studies were done, deforestation rates have
continued to climb which means the actual populations could be well below
these.
Orangutan is known for their distinctive
red fur, orangutans are the largest arboreal mammal, spending most of their
time in trees. Long, powerful arms and grasping hands and feet allow them to
move through the branches. These great ape share 96.4% of our genes and are
highly intelligent creatures and that’s why they go by the name orangutan means
“Man of the forest” in the Malay language. We shall all take action to save orangutans and that
is the reason for International Orangutan Day!
0 Comments