orangutan (redirected from Oranghutan)

orangutan (ōrăng`tăn), an ape, Pongo pygmaeus, found in swampy coastal forests of Borneo and Sumatra. Highly specialized for arboreal life, it usually travels by grasping branches with hands and feet and moving from tree to tree. Adult males are about 4 1-2 ft (1.4 m) tall and weigh up to 180 lbs (82 kg). Their arms are very long, the total span sometimes exceeding 7 ft (2.1 m). Their legs are short and bowed, making ground travel awkward; they walk with a side-to-side shuffle on all fours. The body is rotund and covered with long hair in various shades of red. The face of a young orangutan looks quite human; the name means "forest person" in Malay. Old males usually develop large cheek pads and facial hair that resembles a man's moustache and beard. Enormous throat pouches also develop with sexual maturation, which starts at about age 14.

Adult orangutans are basically solitary, except for mother-offspring pairs; however, weaned juveniles sometimes congregate in small groups. Males are aggressive toward each other and fight over females. Individual nests are usually constructed in trees each night. Fruit is a diet mainstay, and orangutans are important seed distributors.

The numbers of orangutans have recently dropped precipitously owing to loss of habitat to deforestation (logging, forest fires, and clearing of land for plantations) and the killing of females for their young, to be sold as pets or zoo animals. Fewer than 30,000 individuals are believed to remain in the wild, and the species is listed as endangered. Orangutans are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Primates, family Pongidae.

Bibliography

See B. Galdikas, Orangutan Adaptation at Tanjung Puting Reserve, Central Borneo (1978); J. H. Schwartz, The Red Ape (1987).

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orangutan

 or orang

Male orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with cheek pads.

(credit: Russ Kinne/Photo Researchers)

Species (Pongo pygmaeus, 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.” The orangutan is an endangered species.