It’s Day 4 of #orangutancaringweek!
Orangutan comes from Malay words orang, meaning "person", and hutan, meaning "forest". These “people of the forest” are perfectly adapted to their arboreal habitat. With long arms and legs and feet like hands they can grasp branches easily to travel through the forest canopy.
Like all great apes, orangutans have large brains and are self-aware and capable of reasoning. In the wild, orangutans use tools such as sticks to extract insects and honey to eat. When it rains they will cover their heads with leaves, which act like an umbrella. In captive or semi-wild conditions orangutans have been taught to use sign-language.
Orangutans are semi-solitary which is unique among primate species. The scarcity of food means orangutans spend up to 60% of their day foraging for food, and it is this competition for food that results in solitary or very small groups of orangutans.
Adult males are the most solitary of all orangutans, interacting only with receptive females. The courtship period between males and females lasts between three to ten days, and males share no role in the upbringing of their offspring. Adult males will not tolerate each other’s company and will often fight, sometimes violently, especially in the presence of a sexually receptive female. 
The large throat sacks of adult males is a key orangutan adaptation. These are used as a resonating chamber for the “long call” – this sounds like a loud roar and can carry for almost a mile. The long call may play a role in repelling male rivals and advertising availability to sexually receptive females.
A typical family group comprises a mother and up to two offspring – one baby/toddler that needs to be carried and perhaps still one older youngster (up to 8 years old) that is not yet independent. Adolescent females will often travel together, especially those of a similar age. Sub-adult males may also be included in such groups.
Orangutans spend most of their in their forest canopy, even building ‘nests’ in the trees where they sleep away from ground predators. Their bodies are adapted to their unique method of arboreal locomotion – called quadrumanous scrambling. The orangutans’ long, narrow hands and feet are especially useful for grasping branches. Their opposable thumbs and big toes are short to facilitate the hook-like function of hands and feet, particularly in brachiation and hanging on to tree branches. They have highly mobile hip and shoulder joints that allow them to easily move from branch to branch and tree to tree. Unlike other great apes, who are usually dark in colour, orangutan bodies are covered in thick reddish brown hair. This colouring may help them blend in to the forest environment, with some trees in the canopy containing orangey-brown dead leaves, and others having reddish leaves when young.
Like other great apes, orangutans have high cognitive abilities which manifests as tool-use and even the making of simple tools. For example, orangutans have been observed making simple tools to scratch themselves, as well as using branches to shelter themselves from rain and sun, and to forage for insects and honey.
Recently, scientists have found increasing evidence of socially learned traditions (culture) within orangutan groups. Scientists observed and identified two dozen behaviors that are present in some orangutan populations and absent from others, such as using leaves as napkins to wipe their chins, leaves as gloves to help them handle spiny fruits, or using leaves as seat cushions in spiny trees. These practices are reportedly learned from other group members and passed down through the generations.
To learn more about orangutans, visit https://www.orangutan.org.uk/orangutans
#orangutans #redape
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