Orang-Utan

Facts

IUCN ENDANGERED (EN)

Facts about this animal

Male orangutans are apes reaching a head-body height of up to 150 cm and a body weight (in the wild) of 75 to 100 kg. Females are considerably smaller and weigh up to 40 kgs. They have long arms, a stocky, thick-set body and short legs. Their coat is rather coarse and long, especially over shoulders and arms of old males. The face is bluish-black in colour. It is concave and markedly prognathic in adults. The eyes are small, narrow standing, with a brown iris. Males often have white or orange beards and develop enormous cheek flanges of fat and fibrous tissue. They also may get large dependent gular pouches. Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees, making a new nest in the trees every night. Unlike other apes, orang-utans are largely solitary animals. This social behaviour reflects the fact that each individual requires a large home range to forage for food. However, females do sometimes come together in small groups of four or five, especially in the fruit season when food is abundant and therefore not worth fighting over. In zoos keeping in family groups is possible.

Orang-utans have a low reproductive rate with females giving birth once every 4-8 years. The gestation period is 275 days and the female usually produces a single infant with a birth weight of 1-2 kgs, although twins are sometimes born. The young are nursed exclusively by the mother and carried around on her back or at her breast until they are completely weaned at three years old. When the mother gives birth again, the adolescent becomes more independent but may still stay with its mother until it is 7 or 8 years old.

Traditionally, Bornean and Sumatran orangs were classified as subspecies, recently they were elevated to full specific level by some authors.

Did you know?
that "orang" and "utan" are Malay words meaning "man" and forest", so the literal meaning of its name is "man of the forest"?

Factsheet
Class	MAMMALIA
Order	PRIMATES
Suborder	SIMIAE
Family	PONGIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Pongo pygmaeus
Name (English)	Orang-Utan
Name (French)	Orang-outan
Name (German)	Orang-Utan
Name (Spanish)	Orangután
Local names	Malay: Orang Utan
CITES Status	Appendix I
CMS Status	Not listed

Photo Copyright by
Valerie Abbott

Distribution

Distribution
Range	Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia
Habitat	Lowland rainforest
Wild population	45,000-60,000 (2003) (Red List IUCN 2011)
Zoo population	898 registered by the International studbook (2004), 576 reported to ISIS (2007)

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 33 or 34 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

Find this animal on ZooLex

Photo Copyright by
Valerie Abbott

Why do zoos keep this animal

The Sumatran orang is critically endangered and the Borneo orang is endangered with the populations of both forms declining. Therefore, an International Studbook has been established in 1976 under the WAZA umbrella, and coordinated conservation breeding programmes are operated at the regional level. Animal welfare is another motive, as zoos come relatively often in a situation where they have to care for illegally traded confiscated specimens. Orang utans have also a great value for environmental education and as an ambassador species for their endangered rain forest habitat.

How this animal should be kept

Legal requirements for the keeping of apes vary greatly from country to country. Even if lower national standards apply, it is recommended that an outdoor enclosure of 300 m² and, in cold and temperate climatic zones, an indoor enclosure of 150m² should be provided for up to 5 compatible adult animals. These enclosures should be at least 6 m high. They should be enlarged by 10% for each additional adult. During daytime, access to the outdoor enclosure should be possible whenever weather conditions permit. In- and outdoor enclosures should be connected by at least two doors. The indoor temperature should not fall below 20°C, it should be higher in places (radiators). The day phase should be around 12 hours, the light spectrum should more or less correspond to that of natural sunlight.

Vertical and horizontal climbing opportunities, horizontal benches or platforms allowing for sitting at various levels above ground, structures allowing the individuals to retire and avoid one another, and separate cages for temporary isolation should be provided as should toys, and branches, cargo nets and other material for constructing sleeping nests. The outdoor enclosure should have some natural vegetation such as a grass cover, bushes and live trees in addition to dead trees, ropes, climbing frames etc. Live trees may need to be protected by hot wires or similar.

Naturalistic approaches to exhibit design and range of arboreal movement offered to the animals may be somewhat compromised by the orang-utans’ curiosity, destructiveness, and ability to escape. Instead of open enclosures, therefore often exhibits totally enclosed in light weight yet very strong stainless steel netting creating voluminous tent-like structures offering the apes far greater access to the volume of space available than comparable exhibits confined by walls, dry or water moats. If water moats are used they should be so designed and secured as to minimize the risk of drowning.

Food should be provided at least three times per day, it should comprise a variety of fruit and vegetables, sufficient animal protein, leaves and branches all year round), and should be presented in a way to keep the animals busy over a longer period of time.