text x_quick_Title2=Class: Mammalia~Order: Primates ~Family: Pongidae~(Pongo pygmaeus)
text x_quick=Where In the World~` Orangutans are found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.~` Orangutans were once found in southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Java.~` No one is sure just how many orangutans there are left in the wild, their numbers are definitely declining.~ ~Take a Look!~` Male orangutans are almost twice the size of females.~` The largest males can weigh up to 200 pounds, while the females are no more than 110 pounds.~` The males can be almost five feet tall. Most of that height comes from a long, powerful torso. The seated height of an orangutan is about three feet.~` The orangutan's arms dangle to its ankles. A five-foot tall male can stretch its arms over seven feet from one hand to the other.~ ~All in the Family~` Orangutans are related to the other great apes, the chimpanzee and the gorilla. The next nearest relative is humans - that means you!~ ~Just the Facts~` Orangutans are very anti-social, and will avoid coming into contact with any other orangutan.~` The only social group orangutans have is a mother's bond with her baby.~` The orangutan lives almost entirely in trees. It rarely walks on the ground, and only when it has to cross an open space between trees that can't be crossed above-ground.~` They are most active in the daylight hours, and build nests in the trees to sleep in at night. The nests are rarely used more than once.~` Like humans, orangutans are omnivores - they eat both plants and animals. Most of an orangutan's diet comes from fruit, but they also eat leaves and twigs, insects, tree bark, seeds, bird's eggs and young birds, and even mineral-rich dirt.~` Females have one young at a time (twins are very rare), and they take very good care of their offspring.~` Mother and baby are in constant contact for the first year and within arm's reach until the baby is three. The baby may stay with its mother until it is eight or nine years old.~` Females have an average of one child every six years.~` In the wild, orangutans can live to be 35 years old. In captivity, they can be 50 years old.
;Habitat
text x_hab= Orangutans once roamed across much of southeast Asia, and fossil records indicated that they may once have been even larger than gorillas. At that time, they probably lived mostly on the ground. Today, the orangs have been "chased up a tree" - some scientists believe that it was humans who caused the orangs to leave the ground. When humans began hunting the orangutans, the ones who instinctively climbed above eye level were the only ones to survive - and they passed that climbing instinct on to their children, who also climbed. Today, orangs are very cautious on the ground, and only come out of the trees to move from one tree to another.~ Sumatra and Borneo are two large islands in the Indonesian chain that separate the Indian Ocean from the Pacific Ocean. They're hot, moist, and very beautiful. These two islands are the last places on earth where orangutans are found in the wild. They live in the rainforests that cover these islands, from low-level swamps to high in the mountain ridges, up to about 5,000 feet. The orangs need what is called "primary" forest to survive - that is, forest that hasn't been cut down and allowed to grow back. The orangs need the large, old trees for their mid-air pathways, and they need the wide range of tree and plant species to find food at all times of the year.
;Food
text x_eat= Orangutans eat both plants and meat, which makes them omnivores. You're an omnivore, too - even if you are a vegetarian by choice, your body is designed to digest and use both plants and animals. If you love to eat hamburgers (from cattle) and French fries (from potatoes), that proves you're an omnivore! An orangutan probably wouldn't like burgers and fries quite as much as you do, but it does eat meat - bird's eggs, young birds, and insects all qualify as animal matter. And, like you, orangs eat plants - mostly fruit, but also leaves. Maybe you think you'd never eat leaves - but do you like lettuce on your burger? Those are leaves, too!~ There are a few things on the orang's diet that you might not want to share in - including tree bark and even soil, if it's rich in minerals. (Instead of eating mineral-rich dirt, you'd probably just prefer to take some vitamins!) Orangs also eat seeds and new shoots.~ Adult female orangs usually stay in their own home region. If one kind of fruit is ripe, and there's only one tree in the area, two or more females may find themselves at the tree, picking and eating the ripe fruit. Rather than go hungry, they will pretend they can't see each other. Below them, on the ground, their more social and friendly babies play together in evident delight of making new friends.
;Habits and Characteristics
text x_life= Some species have as many babies as possible and hope that a few will make it to adulthood to have babies of their own. (That applies to rabbits.) But that's not the orangutan's way. A mother orangutan has just one baby every six years. She devotes all her energies to that one child until it can care for itself. While there aren't very many births to orangutans each year, very few infants die from natural causes such as predators.~ Orangutans are extremely good mothers. The baby needs to be in physical contact with its mother for its first year if it is to develop normally, and its mother holds it for that entire first year. For the next two years, mother and baby are within arm's reach of each other. Each night, orangutans build nests in the trees to sleep in. The baby may move out of its mother's nest at about this age, but a second nest is build right along side. By the time the baby is three years old, it's brave enough to wander a bit on its own, but it won't go very far away. If her offspring is ready to be on its own when it is six, the mother will have another baby. She might wait, though, giving her growing child the benefit of her attention until it is eight or nine years old.~ Baby orangutans are covered with silky, long, bright orange fur. As they age, orangs darken. The oldest become a reddish-maroon colour, or the rich brown of dark chocolate. As the orange baby clings to its mother, it stands out easily against her darker coat. By the time the baby is old enough to be on its own, its coat will have darkened somewhat. Young orangs are playful and friendly, but as they age, they begin to grow into the adult orang's need for solitude. By the time its mother has another baby, the young orang will be longing to escape into a hermit-like life, where it can deliberately avoid other orangutans. Males call out with a loud, booming noise that warns all other orangs to move away. ~ Adult males are hostile to each other, but males and females can share the same home range, provided they stay more or less out of each other's sight. A male may control up to three or four square miles of territory, while females need much less room. One male's territory may overlap or contain the territories of two or three females, and the younger occupants of the area recognise that the dominant male is in charge. They stay out of each other's vision, but most orangs know their neighbours and don't challenge them. It isn't until a newcomer appears that a confrontation can result.
;Threats
text x_threat= People have hunted orangutans for centuries, but the orangutans only began to have a problem within the last hundred years. Orangs are found only in Sumatra and Borneo - they are very exotic and unusual to most people. Once westerners "discovered" the orangutan, every zoo wanted one or two of their own. The orangs are extremely intelligent and easy to train when they are young. In early life, they're playful and charming. Any zoo that could boast of an orangutan was sure to increase its visitors.~ Unfortunately for the orangutans, the mothers are completely loyal to their young. It is impossible to capture a young orangutan without killing its moth
