Rain Forest Tree Dwellers Who Keep Themselves to Themselves
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 15:00 CST
ORANG-UTANS are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair native to Malaysia and Indonesia.
The two species show slightly different physical characteristics. Sumatran orang-utans have a narrower face and longer beard than the Bornean species. Bornean orang-utans are slightly darker in colour and the males have wider cheek pads than their Sumatran relatives.
The word orang-utan is derived from the Malay orang-hutan meaning "man of the forest".
Orang-utans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees, making a new nest every night.
Adult males are about 4.5ft (1.4 m) tall and up to 180 lbs (82 kg) in weight. They are only found in rain forests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
Orang-utans are highly endangered in the wild.
Their habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. Much of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development.
There is also a major problem with the illegal trapping of baby orang-utans for sale into the pet trade' the trappers usually kill the mother to steal the baby.
Orang-utans are unusual amongst the primates. All other apes and monkeys are social and gregarious, whilst the orang-utan is semi solitary, the largest group being a mother and two offspring.
Source: Daily Post; Liverpool
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