Male Bornean orangutan at Apenheul Primate Park, Netherlands. (Credit: Jean Kern)
Where do orangutans come from? Malaysia and Indonesia (namely Borneo and Sumatra)
How big is an orangutan? males grow up to 1,40m and weigh between 60-90kg, females grow up to 1.15m and weigh between 40-50kg
How old can orangutans get? the record observed in zoos was 59 years
How do orangutans live? semi-solitary, male’s territory overlaps with home range of a number of females
Are orangutans threatened? Bornean orangutan: Endangered, Sumatran orangutan: Critically Endangered, population trend: decreasing, wild population size estimates: Sumatra 7.000, Borneo 54.000 animals
There are two different species of orangutan: the Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) and the Sumatran (Pongo abelii).
The name orang utan means “person of the forest“ in Malay. However, the locals do not call those apes orangutans, but have different names for them, like “mawas”. It is believed that the locals living in the coastal regions of Borneo and Sumatra telling missionaries and explorers coming centuries ago about “persons of the forest, a bit wild, not able to read” actually did not refer to utans, but to forest-living people!
Wild orangutan habitat at Kinabantangan, Borneo. Credit: HUTAN
The orangutan is the largest arboreal animal. They are foraging, feeding and building nests in trees in which to sleep. Orangutans are known to use tools to get difficult to obtain food items, and to handle spiny and thorny fruits. For example they can make a sort of ‘oven cloth’ out of leaves to avoid getting their hands hurt from spines. These kind of behaviour are acquired and show characteristics of culture as they vary between populations.
Adult individuals spend most of their life on their own. As being so large and relatively heavy, orangutans are not able to cover large distances in their habitat, but at the same time have to consume large amounts of food. Thus living in bigger social groups is largely inhibited by resource competition.
Orangutans are particularly vulnerable to extinction due to their very slow reproduction rate. Also, their population densities are quite low, as they need large home ranges. In addition, they are restricted to lowland rainforest areas. These are the top three threats they face:
1. Conversion to plantations (palm oil)
2. Other habitat destruction and fragmentation (logging, fires)
3. Hunting (for bushmeat and trade in infants)
More to read
• International Primatological Society
• UNEP – Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP)
• Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS)
- orangutan-fact-sheet.pdf (180 kB)
A Word version of this fact sheet is available to campaign participants under Resources -> Education. Links to additional sources of information can also be found under Resources.
