Bornean Orangutan
(pongo pygmaeus)
Orangutans are a large species of Monkey from the Asian regions of Indonesia and Malaysia. There are currently two species of Orangutan in the world the Bornean and the Sumatran Orangutans. I have chosen the Bornean Orangutan because as of now the number of Bornean Orangutans in the wild has dramatically decreased by nearly 150,000 in the last 15 years.
The Orangutan is a member of the Eukaryote domain which is shared with the human beings. Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed with membrane.
The Orangutan belongs to the Animalia Kingdom. This means that they breath air, can eat both flora and fauna and have the ability to reproduce sexually.
The Orangutan is a member of the phylum Chordata. Chordata is a large phylum of animals that includes the vertebrates together with the sea squirts and lancelets. They are distinguished by the possession of a notochord at some stage during their development. A Notochord is a piece of rod material made from cartilage.
The Orangutan is in the Mammalia class. This means that they have warm blood, hair and milk producing glands.
Orangutans are a type of Primate. Characteristics of Primates include hands and feet. On these hands and feet there are five digits. Most also include opposable thumbs.
Orangutans are in the great ape family. Characteristics of great apes are their bare faces with round eyes and small ears, their long, shaggy hair long arms and curled fingers and toes.
!! The great ape family doesn't differ hugely from the (human) homindae.
The Orangutan is a member of the Pongo genus. This is a genus only shared by Orangutans.
The Orangutan is officially known as a member of the “pygmaeus” species.
The official name of an animal is a combination of its Genus and its Species.
The official name of the Orangutan is the Pongo Pygmaeus.
Endangerment of The Orangutans.
For the two species of orangutans found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in southeast Asia, mature tropical rainforests are essential to their survival. Orangutans live entirely in trees. The reason why orangutans are endangered can be summed up with two words habitat loss.
Pressure to destroy mature forests and orangutans comes from multiple sources. The demise of an orangutan population often begins with building a road through pristine forest. A new road brings in entrepreneurs and settlers keen to exploit the tropical forest and clear land. Loggers, farmers, poachers and pet dealers all play a role in the endangered orangutan's decline.
Deforestation over the last few decades has devastated orangutans. The number of orangutans in Borneo dropped by over half in the last 60 years. In Sumatra, the orangutan population is just one-fifth of what it was 75 years ago. Sumatran orangutans are the most endangered great ape in the world.
Unfortunately, their future is bleak. New roads are planned for forests in the Singkil Swamps Wildlife Reserve on northern Sumatra. These rich forests support the world's highest density of orangutans. Also living in the reserve are Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses and Sumatran elephants, all endangered animals.
Evolution of Orangutans.
The appropriately named Gigantopithecus was a giant ape of Asia, fully grown males measured up to nine feet tall and weighed as much as half a ton. Like modern orangutans, Gigantopithecus belonged to the primate subfamily Ponginae, of which Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii are the only surviving members ( borneo and sumatran Orangutans). What this means is that Gigantopithecus, was not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but occupied a distant side branch of the primate evolutionary tree.
Embryology.
The orangutan has the slowest development of adulthood in the world, and a lifespan of up to 60 years in the wild. Orangutan mothers also have the longest interval between offspring in the world (around 7 years), which contributes to the highest offspring survival rate of all great apes. The rather solitary adult life makes the long childhood essential in learning everything needed to survive and thrive in the rainforest for many years to come. Furthermore, the female orangutans apparently continue to be reproductive their whole life.
Habitats.
Some of the world’s largest and oldest rainforest areas are located in Borneo. The lush rainforest is home to the orangutan, which today only lives in isolated fragments comprised of mainly lowland areas but also including more hilly or mountainous areas. It has been estimated that the habitat of orangutans was around 25 million acres back in 1973, and will diminish to less than 10 million acres by 2025. This constitutes a loss of more than 15 million acres (62 %) in just about 50 years.
Interaction with each other.
The issue of orangutan communication is one that many people find to be interesting. They have an assortment of both verbal and non verbal methods that they use for this purpose. Researchers have been able to decode some of the meanings of them but there is still a great deal that they don’t fully understand.
They can make very loud calls that are heard for miles away in the rainforest. These are referred to as long calls as they can last for up to a full minute. After the long call they will give out a bellow. Most of the time it is the males that make these sounds. They have a very large throat sac where the sounds develop. They make these calls to warn other males of their territory. They also use them to entice females to come to them when they are ready to mate.
Life Cycle
The mothers would care for the babies more often than the father, nursing the offspring every 3-4 hours for up to 6-7 years. By the age of 4 months, they learn to accept food from their mothers lips. During the first year, the young ones move around clinging to their mothers abdomen by gripping the fur. Usually, the baby orangutan is weaned at about 4 years. However, they would always stay within the sight of the mother.
The young orangutans reach the age of maturity at around 8 and learn to live independently. However, the young females would continue to stay with their mothers until they are teens, and learn the essential parenting skills from their mothers by observing how the younger siblings are taken care of. This is essential, since without this lesson the young females will not be able to rear their own babies.
Differences between the borneon and sumatran Orangutan
While both types have reddish or copper-color hair all over their bodies, the Sumatran counterparts have longer facial hair.
The Sumatrans stay in the tree tops while the Bornean in contrast, would often come to the ground, especially the males.
Bornean Orangutan
(pongo pygmaeus)
Orangutans are a large species of Monkey from the Asian regions of Indonesia and Malaysia. There are currently two species of Orangutan in the world the Bornean and the Sumatran Orangutans. I have chosen the Bornean Orangutan because as of now the number of Bornean Orangutans in the wild has dramatically decreased by nearly 150,000 in the last 15 years.
The Orangutan is a member of the Eukaryote domain which is shared with the human beings. Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed with membrane.
The Orangutan belongs to the Animalia Kingdom. This means that they breath air, can eat both flora and fauna and have the ability to reproduce sexually.
The Orangutan is a member of the phylum Chordata. Chordata is a large phylum of animals that includes the vertebrates together with the sea squirts and lancelets. They are distinguished by the possession of a notochord at some stage during their development. A Notochord is a piece of rod material made from cartilage.
The Orangutan is in the Mammalia class. This means that they have warm blood, hair and milk producing glands.
Orangutans are a type of Primate. Characteristics of Primates include hands and feet. On these hands and feet there are five digits. Most also include opposable thumbs.
Orangutans are in the great ape family. Characteristics of great apes are their bare faces with round eyes and small ears, their long, shaggy hair long arms and curled fingers and toes.
!! The great ape family doesn't differ hugely from the (human) homindae.
The Orangutan is a member of the Pongo genus. This is a genus only shared by Orangutans.
The Orangutan is officially known as a member of the “pygmaeus” species.
The official name of an animal is a combination of its Genus and its Species.
The official name of the Orangutan is the Pongo Pygmaeus.
Endangerment of The Orangutans.
For the two species of orangutans found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in southeast Asia, mature tropical rainforests are essential to their survival. Orangutans live entirely in trees. The reason why orangutans are endangered can be summed up with two words habitat loss.
Pressure to destroy mature forests and orangutans comes from multiple sources. The demise of an orangutan population often begins with building a road through pristine forest. A new road brings in entrepreneurs and settlers keen to exploit the tropical forest and clear land. Loggers, farmers, poachers and pet dealers all play a role in the endangered orangutan's decline.
Deforestation over the last few decades has devastated orangutans. The number of orangutans in Borneo dropped by over half in the last 60 years. In Sumatra, the orangutan population is just one-fifth of what it was 75 years ago. Sumatran orangutans are the most endangered great ape in the world.
Unfortunately, their future is bleak. New roads are planned for forests in the Singkil Swamps Wildlife Reserve on northern Sumatra. These rich forests support the world's highest density of orangutans. Also living in the reserve are Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses and Sumatran elephants, all endangered animals.
Evolution of Orangutans.
The appropriately named Gigantopithecus was a giant ape of Asia, fully grown males measured up to nine feet tall and weighed as much as half a ton. Like modern orangutans, Gigantopithecus belonged to the primate subfamily Ponginae, of which Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii are the only surviving members ( borneo and sumatran Orangutans). What this means is that Gigantopithecus, was not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but occupied a distant side branch of the primate evolutionary tree.
Embryology.
The orangutan has the slowest development of adulthood in the world, and a lifespan of up to 60 years in the wild. Orangutan mothers also have the longest interval between offspring in the world (around 7 years), which contributes to the highest offspring survival rate of all great apes. The rather solitary adult life makes the long childhood essential in learning everything needed to survive and thrive in the rainforest for many years to come. Furthermore, the female orangutans apparently continue to be reproductive their whole life.
Habitats.
Some of the world’s largest and oldest rainforest areas are located in Borneo. The lush rainforest is home to the orangutan, which today only lives in isolated fragments comprised of mainly lowland areas but also including more hilly or mountainous areas. It has been estimated that the habitat of orangutans was around 25 million acres back in 1973, and will diminish to less than 10 million acres by 2025. This constitutes a loss of more than 15 million acres (62 %) in just about 50 years.
Interaction with each other.
The issue of orangutan communication is one that many people find to be interesting. They have an assortment of both verbal and non verbal methods that they use for this purpose. Researchers have been able to decode some of the meanings of them but there is still a great deal that they don’t fully understand.
They can make very loud calls that are heard for miles away in the rainforest. These are referred to as long calls as they can last for up to a full minute. After the long call they will give out a bellow. Most of the time it is the males that make these sounds. They have a very large throat sac where the sounds develop. They make these calls to warn other males of their territory. They also use them to entice females to come to them when they are ready to mate.
Life Cycle
The mothers would care for the babies more often than the father, nursing the offspring every 3-4 hours for up to 6-7 years. By the age of 4 months, they learn to accept food from their mothers lips. During the first year, the young ones move around clinging to their mothers abdomen by gripping the fur. Usually, the baby orangutan is weaned at about 4 years. However, they would always stay within the sight of the mother.
The young orangutans reach the age of maturity at around 8 and learn to live independently. However, the young females would continue to stay with their mothers until they are teens, and learn the essential parenting skills from their mothers by observing how the younger siblings are taken care of. This is essential, since without this lesson the young females will not be able to rear their own babies.
Differences between the borneon and sumatran Orangutan
While both types have reddish or copper-color hair all over their bodies, the Sumatran counterparts have longer facial hair.
The Sumatrans stay in the tree tops while the Bornean in contrast, would often come to the ground, especially the males.