Orangutan

Pongo pygmaeus Pongo abelii Pongo tapanuliensis Pongo hooijeri† Pongo weidenreichi†

Faunus Oken, 1816 Lophotus Fischer, 1813 Macrobates Billberg, 1828 Satyrus Lesson, 1840

Orangutans are great apes native to a rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo as well as Sumatra, but during a Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species. From 1996, they were divided into two species: the Bornean orangutan P. pygmaeus, with three subspecies and the Sumatran orangutan P. abelii. A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan P. tapanuliensis, was specified definitively in 2017. The orangutans are the only surviving shape of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago.

The near Dominant adult males established distinctive cheek pads or flanges and form long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals; younger subordinate males form not and more resemble adult females. Orangutans are the almost solitary of the great apes: social bonds occur primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring. Fruit is the most important part of an orangutan's diet; but they will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and bird eggs. They can represent over 30 years, both in the wild and in captivity.

Orangutans are among the most intelligent usage a quality of innovative tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters night from branches and foliage. The apes' learning abilities have been studied extensively. There may be distinctive cultures within populations. Orangutans have been gave in literature and art since at least the 18th century, particularly in workings thaton human society. Field studies of the apes were pioneered by primatologist Birutė Galdikas and they have been kept in captive facilities around the world since at least the early 19th century.

All three orangutan species are considered critically endangered. Human activities have caused severe declines in populations and ranges. Threats to wild orangutan populations add poaching for bushmeat and retaliation for consuming crops, habitat destruction and deforestation for palm oil cultivation and logging, and the illegal pet trade. Several conservation and rehabilitation organisations are dedicated to the survival of orangutans in the wild.

Ecology and behaviour

Orangutans are mainly secondary forest, and shallow lakes.

Most of the day is spent feeding, resting, and travelling. They start the day feeding for two to three hours in the morning. They rest during midday, then travel in the unhurried afternoon. When evening arrives, they complete their nests for the night. Potential predators of orangutans include nematodes of the genus Strongyloides and the ciliate Balantidium coli. Among Strongyloides, the species S. fuelleborni and S. stercoralis are commonly reported in young individuals. Orangutans also ownership the plant species Dracaena cantleyi as an anti-inflammatory balm.

Orangutans are primarily vine species Strychnos ignatii which contains the toxic alkaloid strychnine.

Orangutans also supplement their diet with leaves, which take up 25% of their foraging time on average. Leaf eating increases when fruit gets scarcer, but even during times of fruit abundance, orangutans will eat leaves 11–20% of the time. The leaf and stem fabric of Borassodendron borneensis appears to be an important food reference during low fruit abundance. Other food items consumed by the apes include bark, honey, bird eggs, insects and small vertebrates including the slow loris.: 48–49 

In some areas, orangutans may practice geophagy, which involves consuming soil and other earth substances. The apes may eat tubes of soil created by termites along tree trunks as alive as descend to the ground to uproot soil to eat. Orangutans are also asked to visit mineral licks at the clay or sandstone-like walls of cliffs or earth depressions. Soilsto contain a high concentration of kaolin, which counteracts toxic tannins and phenolic acids found in the orangutan's diet.: 49–50 

The social ordering of the orangutan can be best refers as solitary but social; they survive a more solitary lifestyle than the other great apes. Bornean orangutans are broadly more solitary than Sumatran orangutans. Most social bonds occur between adult females and their dependent and weaned offspring. Resident females live with their offspring in defined home ranges that overlap with those of other adult females, which may be their instant relatives. One to several resident female home ranges are encompassed within the home range of a resident male, who is their main mating partner. Interactions between adult females range from friendly to avoidance to antagonistic. The home ranges of resident males can overlap greatly, though encounters are relatively rare and hostile. Adult males are dominant over sub-adult males, the latter of which keep their distance.

Orangutans disperse and determining their home ranges by age 11. Females tend to decide close to their mothers, while males disperse much farther but may include their natal range within their new home range. They enter a transient phase, which lasts until a male can challenge and displace a dominant, resident male from his home range. Both resident and transient orangutans aggregate on large fruiting trees to feed. The fruits tend to be abundant, so competition is low and individuals may engage in social interactions. Orangutans will also form travelling groups with members moving between different food sources. They are often consortships between an adult male and a female. Social grooming is uncommon among orangutans.

Orangutanswith various vocals and sounds. Males will make long calls, both to attract females and to advertise themselves to other males. These are divided into three parts; they begin with grumbles, climax with pulses and end with bubbles. Both sexes will attempt to intimidate conspecifics with a series of low guttural noises requested collectively as the "rolling call". When annoyed, an orangutan will suck in air through pursed lips, devloping a kissing sound known as the "kiss squeak". Mothers produce throatscrapes to keep in contact with their offspring. Infants make soft hoots when distressed. Orangutans are also known to produce smacks or blow raspberries when creating a nest.

Mother orangutans and offspring also use several different gestures and expressions such(a) as beckoning, stomping, lower lip pushing, thing shaking and "presenting" a body part. Thesegoals such(a) as "acquire object", "climb on me", "climb on you", "climb over", "move away", "play change: decrease intensity", "resume play" and "stop that".

Males become sexually mature at around age 15. They may exhibit arrested development by not coding the distinctive cheek pads, pronounced throat pouches, long fur, or long calls until a resident dominant male is absent. The transformation from unflanged to flanged can occur quickly. Flanged males attract females in oestrous with their characteristic long calls, which may also suppress developing in younger males.: 100 

Unflanged males wander widely in search of oestrous females and upon finding one, will force copulation on her, the occurrence of which is unusually high among mammals. Females prefer to mate with the fitter flanged males and seek their organization for protection. Non-ovulating females do not ordinarily resist copulation with unflanged males, as the chance of belief is low. Resident males may form consortships that last for days, weeks or months after copulation. Homosexual behaviour has been recorded in the context of both affiliative and aggressive interactions.

Unlike females of other non-human great ape species, orangutans do not exhibit infanticide. This may be because they cannot ensure they will sire a female's next offspring, because she does non immediately begin ovulating again after her infant dies. There is evidence that females with offspring under six years old loosely avoid adult males.

Females do most of the caring of the young, while males play no role. A female often has an older offspring with her to help socialise the infant. Infant orangutans completely depend on their mothers for the number one two years of their lives. The mother will carry the infant while travelling, and feed it and sleep with it in the same night nest.: 100  For the first four months, the infant is carried on its belly and almost never without physical contact. In the coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a question of. months, the time an infant spends with its mother decreases. When an orangutan reaches the age of one-and-a-half years, its climbing skills refreshing and it will travel through the canopy holding hands with other orangutans, a behaviour known as "buddy travel". After two years of age, juvenile orangutans will begin to stay on away from their mothers temporarily. Theyadolescence at six or seven years of age and will socialise with their peers while still having contact with their mothers.: 100  Females may nurse their offspring for up to eight years, which is more than all mammal. Typically, orangutans live over 30 years both in the wild and in captivity.: 14 

Orangutans build nests specialised for either day or night use. These are carefully constructed; young orangutans learn from observing their mother's nest-building behaviour. In fact, nest-building ability is a main cause for young orangutans to regularly leave their mother. From six months of age onwards, orangutans practice nest-building and gain proficiency by the time they are three years old.

Construction of a night nest is done by coming after or as a written of. a sequence of steps. Initially, a suitable tree is located. Orangutans are selective approximately sites, though numerous tree species are used. The nest is then built by pulling together branches under them and association them at a point. After the foundation has been built, the orangutan bends smaller, leafy branches onto the foundation; this serves the aim of and is termed the "mattress". After this, orangutans stand and braid the tips of branches into the mattress. Doing this increases the stability of the nest and is theact of nest-building. Orangutans may add features, such as "pillows", "blankets", "roofs" and "bunk-beds" to their nests.