One of my favorite facts to know is that "orangutan" means "man of the forest." "Orang" is Malay for "man" or "people" and "hutan" means "forest."
- The orangutan is the largest tree-dwelling mammal in the world
- Orangutans live in Indonesia and Malaysia, on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. I didn't even realize that Borneo and Sumatra were part of Malaysia, but they are.
- Orangutans in the wild can live to be 45 years or older. The longest living orangutan in captivity was named Guas, and he lived to be 58.
- They eat over 400 different kinds of foods, including bark, flowers, leaves, and occasionally insects, but mainly they eat fruit. They get their water from rainwater and dew that has collected in the holes and dips between tree branches.
- On this diet, they grow to be about 3 to 4 feet tall and between 110 and 200 pounds.
- Orangutans tend not to be as social as other apes. The males generally roam about on their own, while the females stay with one or two offspring.
- They use leaves as umbrellas when it rains.
- The male orangutan makes what's called a long call that can carry through the forest for up to 6/10 of a mile. This is what the long call sounds like: http://www.orangutan.org/media/longcall.mp3
This is Abdul:
From William Calvin's great ape guessing game
Sources:
Orangutan Foundation (UK)
Orangutan Foundation International
Sumatran Orangutan Society
Enchanted Learning "All About Orangutans"
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