Q: Where do orangutans live?
Orangutans live in the forest of Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo). These are the ONLY places in the world where orangutans live. Orangutans live mainly on trees and only occasionally come down to the ground.
Q: What do orangutans eat?
Their main food is fruit (60%)
Young leaves (25%)
Flowers and bark (10%)
Insects, mainly ants, termites and crickets (5%)
And the occasional egg.
Q: What do orangutans NOT eat?
Meat and fish. They eat eggs but not birds and no other animals.
Q: Are orangutans nocturnal?
No, they are active during daylight and rest during the night.
Q: How long can orangutans live?
In the wild, their average lifespan is 45-50 years. They have been known to live longer up to 65 years in captivity.
Q: What noise does an orangutan make?
They “squeak” to communicate. Infants cry like a baby, and young ones scream and throw tantrums. Older orangutans make a long noise (over 1 minute) that sounds like “grumph”. It can be heard 300 metres in the forest. The adult males inflate their throat pouch and make a long call. This is a loud, pitched roaring that carries up to a kilometre in the forest.
Q: How big are orangutans?
An infant weighs around half a kilo at birth. Adult females grow to 1.3 metres in height and can weigh 45kg. Males can sometimes reach 1.8 metres in height and can weigh over 120kg.
Q: What are the differences between male and female orangutans?
Adult males are much bigger than females. As well as the size, the face changes dramatically as he gets older. He grows beard and moustache. The strongest (sexually dominant) male gets wide cheek pads and a throat pouch under his chin.
Q: How many babies are born at a time?
Usually only one infant, very rarely are twins born, they are pregnant the same length of time as humans, nearly 9 months.
Q: When does the infant leave its mother?
Orangutan infants stay with their mother until they are about 6 or 7 years old. They receive breast milk for the first three years of their life but also learn to eat other foods. The mother teaches them everything about survival in the forest. They share a very close relationship.
Q: Do they live in families?
No, as adults they spend most of the time on their own. Babies and children stay together with their mother. However mothers and young orangutans do meet up and the infants play together.
Q: How old are orangutans before they reach maturity?
Females can start having babies between 9 and 12 years old. Male orangutans start between the ages of 9 and 15 years. After that he will grow his beard and moustache. Cheek pad and throat pouch may not appear until he is older than 20 years and might not grow at all.
Q: Do orangutans have houses?
They have the nests for only short time stay.
Q: Where do orangutans sleep?
They sleep in their nests, usually a new one made in the evening. The nests are woven in a branch of a tree from broken tree branches and leaves, often very well crafted, like a big basket. Sometimes the nests can be more than a metre across. Orangutans also build nest in the daytime to rest and play in; a mother with young children might build 2 or 3 nests a day. A mother also uses a nest to give birth in.
Q: Are they dangerous or aggressive?
Normally no, sometimes in captivity they can become aggressive as a result of how they are treated. They are up to 6 times stronger than humans and have 4 strong hands and can bite hard. Usually they are very peaceful animals. If an adult male meets another, they will try and avoid a fight by giving threat displays and staring at each other. If this does not work then they may fight.
Q: Do orangutans have any predators?
Yes, only a few – primarily humans! Previously, the clouded leopard and the Sumatran tigers were their natural predators but humans have killed most of them too!
Q: Why are they endangered?
Firstly, we are destroying their forests. Secondly, they reproduce very slowly. A female will only give birth every 6 – 7 years in the wild. Thirdly, we are hunting them for meat, to sell as pets and ornamentation.
Q: What is a rehabilitation centre?
Rehabilitation centres are set up to accommodate confiscated or donated pet orangutans. The aim is to guide and teach apes to return to their habitat. Many orangutans have already been successfully returned and released back in the wild.
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