Sumatran Orangutan - description, habitat, lifestyle

The content of the article

1 Habitat
2 Description
3 Lifestyle
4 Nutrition
5 Breeding
6 Interesting
7 Video: Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii)

The most famous apes in the world are chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Yes, it’s the orangutans, not the orangutans, as many are used to. Because in the language where these red monkeys live, “orangutan” is just a debtor, and “orangutan” is a resident of the forest. Here about this forest inhabitant from the islands of Sumatra and will be discussed.

Habitat

The Sumatran orangutan lives on the islands of Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatra, owned by Indonesia. The main habitat is located in the north of the island, where there are moist forests with tropical trees. Such a forest is the only place where these monkeys can comfortably live and breed.

Description

Orangutan is quite interesting and sometimes even an unusual primate. The largest males grow up to one and a half meters and eat up to 130 kilograms. Females are more miniature - they only reach one meter in height and weigh, like true ladies, only 30-55 kilograms.

The physique is massive, very dense, the muscles (especially in men) are well developed, the legs and arms are very long. So, the arm span is 2.5 meters. On the hands there are crooked thin fingers that help the monkey to grab onto the branches, as well as to pluck the fruits from the trees with their help. The body is covered with ragged red-brown hair, on the shoulders it is long. On a round, slightly elongated face with puffed cheeks, a red mustache and beard grow. The nape adorns a kind of crest.

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Lifestyle

Orangutans prefer to live alone, but if the group met, then you can be sure - this is a female with her children. And even that - at the meeting the females try to disperse right away, diligently trying to pretend that they did not notice each other. The orangutan spends most of his life on sprawling trees, where he moves along branches with the help of long, tenacious arms. When it appears on the earth's surface, and this happens infrequently, it walks on all four paws. He sleeps where he lives - arranges among the branches a comfortable nest 15-25 meters above the ground. Only the nest is disposable - to return to sleep where the previous night was spent, these monkeys consider it a matter of wrong - and the next night passes in another place.

In general, these humanoid monkeys are very adapted to this way of life - in the trees. Even if the orangutan begins to thirst, he will not climb down the tree in order to go to the pond to get drunk, but simply slime the moisture formed on the leaves.

The orangutan does not show aggression towards people, but it treats relatives of its kind (each male has a private area of about 5 square meters) - he screams out loud at an opponent, writhing scary grimaces that must scare away an alien alien . If the screams and terrible grimaces do not drive away the alien, then the monkeys begin to sort things out. This happens as follows: each of the orangutans jumps to the nearest tree and begins to shake it violently, while screaming heart-rendingly. The one to lose the throat is the first to lose and pretty tired.

Nutrition

The Sumatran Orangutan is by nature not a vegetarian. Although, with appetite, it eats the fruits of various plants growing in the district: plums, bananas, mangoes, papaya and so on. In total, he eats about 400 species of various plants. There is a popular belief that the monkey’s favorite food is bananas. With regard to the Sumatrian orangutan, such an opinion is incorrect - he adores figs. He also loves honey and nuts.

And an orangutan becomes a non-vegetarian when it succeeds in catching some insect, which it eats with pleasure. And it’s worth picking up a tropical bird’s nest with freshly laid eggs, and the testes, along with the nestlings in the nest, will be sent to the stomach.

All this variety of forest gifts allows you to accumulate a fair amount of fat for the rainy season, when you have to eat only leaflets from trees and bark. Although with its low metabolism it is quite possible for two or three days to do without food at all - a forced hunger strike does not bother these monkeys.

Breeding

Orangutans do not have a certain period, called the mating season. If there is a lot of food - there is reason to look after a lady! The cavalier is next to the female from 2 to 8 days. They call her for mating by roaring deafeningly. If she agrees, then mating occurs once every two days. In most cases, the monkeys of the ladies angrily drive the men away. It goes without saying that not one father has a desire after this to participate in the upbringing of children.

Pregnancy lasts a little over eight months. Usually the female gives birth to one cub, in very rare cases - twins. The weight of the newborn is from one and a half to two kilograms; in the first few months of life, it hangs on the mother’s stomach, clinging to weak fingers. But they are growing fast. Mother feeds the child for three years.

In general, a small orangutan does not leave his mother until he is eight years old. At the same age, girls reach puberty, and male orangutans become sexually mature later - at the age of fifteen. From 15 to 20 years old, they have secondary sexual characteristics.

Interesting

Orangutans are not lovers of water. Maybe that's why they are completely unable to swim and try to stay away from water bodies.

People often buy orangutan babies in the black market. In order to get such a cub, you often have to kill an adult female, because she just does not give up the child.

Due to deforestation, the number of orangutans has decreased dramatically. The species is on the verge of extinction; therefore, it is listed in the Red Book. A considerable number of individuals live in zoos, which gives hope for the preservation of the population.

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