A close and cheerful encounter with our orang-utan cousins!

Yes, we recently had a close and cheerful encounter with orang-utans as you can see in the video attached to this article. I call them cousins because scientists have established that orang-utans are the closest living relatives of human beings. Those who have done extensive research on orang-utans say that it is easy to feel a kinship with them when looking into their soulful eyes and observing their socially complex behaviour.  This they say is because orang-utans and humans share 97 percent of their DNA sequence. However for reasons, I do not know, they could not evolve into human beings, and yet I would like to call them cousins...

VIDEO:

The orang-utans, also spelt, orangutan, orangutang, or orang-utang are three extant species of great apes native to Indonesia and Malaysia. Orang-utans are currently only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene, they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. There are three species of orang-utan now, these three orang-utan species are the only extant members of the subfamily Ponginae. The Bornean orang-utan, the most common, can be found in Kalimantan, Indonesia and Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia. The Sumatran orang-utan and the Tapanuli orang-utan are both only found in Sumatra, Indonesia. The conservation status of all three of these species is critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

The name "orang-utan" is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang, meaning "man", and hutan, meaning "forest", thus "MAN OF THE FOREST".

Orang-utans are the most arboreal of the great apes and spend most of their time in trees. Their hair is reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees and gorillas. Males and females differ in size and appearance. Dominant adult males have distinctive cheek pads and produce long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals. Younger males do not have these characteristics and resemble adult females. Orang-utans are the most solitary of the great apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. The fruit is the most important component of an orang-utan's diet and also leaves, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, and flowers; however, the apes will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and even bird eggs. Orang-utans can live over 45 years in both the wild and captivity.

Orangutans are the largest arboreal mammal in the world, living and sleeping in trees.  They travel with ease through the canopy, rarely descending to the forest floor. They are wholly dependent on tropical rain forests for their survival.  In 1900, there were about 315,000 orang-utans in the world.   Today, only a few biologically viable populations remain.  

Orang-utans are the slowest breeding of all primates, having the longest inter-birth interval of all land-based mammals - almost 8 years.   After a gestation period of 8-1/2 months, the female will have her first baby at age 12 to 15.   She will give birth to about 3 babies in her lifetime of 45 years or more.   Mothers care for their young until age 8 or 9; when they are encouraged to go off on their own.

Over the past 60 years, the population of all three species has been steeply declining. The current population of orang-utans cannot be accurately calculated, however, it is estimated that the number of individuals remaining is: 104,000 Bornean orang-utans, 14,000 Sumatran orang-utans, and 800 Tapanuli orang-utans. The number of Bornean orang-utans has decreased by more than 60% in 60 years, and the population of the Sumatran orang-utan has decreased by 80% in the last 75 years. It is estimated that between 1999 and 2015, the population of Bornean orang-utans has decreased by over 100,000.

The primary reason for population decline is habitat loss as a result of the unsustainable practice of timber extraction for the production of palm oil in areas in which orang-utans habituate, notably Indonesia and Malaysia. Orang-utans cannot survive without forests as they are both a home and food source, they build nests in trees for sleeping and survive off tree fruits. Additionally, orang-utans are killed by poaching, where often mothers are killed and infants are seized and sold on the black market as pets.

In 25 years orang-utans will be extinct. The good news is that we can stop this from happening if we act now! Perhaps their ability to adapt to human nurturing is a silent call for help.   Certainly, the concerned authorities should heed their call.