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Let’s Talk Trash! SEPT/OCT 2018
©2018 The Keenan Group, Inc
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes and spend most of their time in trees. Their hair is reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees and gorillas. Males and females differ in size and appearance. Dominant adult males have distinctive cheek pads and produce long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals.Younger males do not have these characteristics and resemble adult females. Orangutans are the most solitary of the great apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. Fruit is the most important component of an orangutan’s diet; however, the apes will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and even bird eggs. They can live over 30 years in both the wild and captivity.
SCIENTIFIC FACTS: Lifespan: Bornean orangutan: 35 – 45 years Scientific name: Pongo
Gestation period: Bornean orangutan: 259 days Encyclopedia of Life Mass: Bornean orangutan: 110 – 220 lbs, Sumatran orangutan: 99 lbs Height: Bornean orangutan: 3.9 – 4.6 ft., Sumatran orangutan: 4.6 ft.
Did you know: Although Orang-utans would have once been found on a number of the forested, tropical islands in Indonesia, today they are confined to just two which are the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
ar·bo·re·al - animals living in trees
Orangutans -- who live high in the treetops of Borneo and Sumatra -- have the longest childhoods of any animal. They must learn to eat, to sleep and to protect themselves within their environment. This education and nurturing comes only from their mothers. Infants cling to their mothers for the
sleeping in the same trees and eating together. Their food comes from the trees -- bark, leaves, flowers, insects and more than 300 kinds of fruit. Mothers show their young in which trees to find food in different seasons, and how to eat it. Some fruits and seeds have to be extracted from pods, which may be covered in sharp spines or encased in shells that must be cracked open. Young orangutans learn to use the tools, such as branches to dislodge fruit and forage for insects, and to chew the leaves for water when rain is scarce. They help find the large, leafy branches that shield them from sun and rain, and build high nests from leaves and branches.
first one to two years of life, traveling as one through the trees and sleeping in the same nests. Some mothers and babies hold hands after age 2, which is called buddy travel. Other mothers continue to carry their young until they are 5 years old. They typically breastfeed until age 8, when they reach puberty. They continue to stay close by their mothers until age 10 or so, traveling and
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