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

Habitat

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

Description

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

The build 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 slender fingers that help the monkey to grab the branches, and also to tear off the fruits from the trees with their help. The body is covered with a ragged hair of red-brown color, it is long on the shoulders. On a round slightly elongated face with puffed-up cheeks, a red mustache and a beard grow. The back of the head is decorated with a kind of comb.

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Lifestyle

Orangutans prefer to live in solitude, but if you meet a group, then you can be sure - this is a female with her children. Yes, and then - when they meet, the females try to immediately disperse, diligently trying to portray that they have not noticed each other. Orangutan spends most of its life on spreading trees, where it moves along branches with the help of long tenacious hands. When it turns out on the earth's surface, and this happens infrequently, it walks on all four paws.He sleeps in the same place where he lives - he arranges a comfortable nest among the branches, 15-25 meters above the ground. Only a one-time nest - to go back to sleep in the same place where the previous night was spent, these monkeys consider it wrong to work - and the next night goes to another place.

In general, these anthropoid monkeys are very adapted to this lifestyle - in the trees. Even if the orangutan begins to quench his thirst, he will not slazit from the tree to go to the reservoir to get drunk, but simply lick the moisture formed on the leaves.

In relation to people, the orangutan does not show aggression, and its relatives who wander into its territory (each male has his own private plot of about 5 square meters) are quite aggressive - loudly screaming at an opponent, writhing scary grimaces that should scare away the alien alien . If the cries and terrible grimaces do not drive the stranger away, 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 hysterically. Loses the one who first tear the throat and pretty tired.

Nutrition

Sumatran orangutan is not a vegetarian by nature. Although with appetite it eats the fruits of various plants growing in the district: plum, bananas, mangoes, papayas, and so on. In total, he eats about 400 species of various plants. There is a popular belief that the monkeys' favorite food is bananas. With regard to the Sumatrian orangutan, this opinion is incorrect - he loves figs. He also likes honey and nuts.

A non-vegetarian orangutan becomes when it manages to catch some insect that is eaten with pleasure. And it is worth treading on a nest of some tropical bird in which freshly laid eggs lie - and the eggs together 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 in the rainy season, when you have to eat only leaves from trees and bark. Although it’s quite possible to go without food for two or three days with its low metabolism - the forced hunger strike doesn’t bother these monkeys at all.

Breeding

Orangutans do not have a definite period called mating season. If there is a lot of food - there is a reason to care for the lady! Cavalier is near the female for 2 to 8 days. To mate call her that deafening roars.If she agrees, then pairing occurs once every two days. In most cases, monkey ladies angrily drive away men. Of course, not a single father arises after this desire to participate in the upbringing of the people who were born.

Pregnancy lasts a little more than eight months. Usually the female gives birth to one cub, in very rare cases - twins. The weight of a 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 get stronger quickly. Mother feeds the child for three years.

In general, a small orangutan does not depart from his mother until he is eight years old. At the same age, girls reach sexual maturity, and orangutans males become sexually mature later on attaining fifteen years of age. From 15 to 20 years, they appear secondary sexual characteristics.

Interesting

Orangutans are not water lovers. Maybe because they are completely unable to swim and try to stay away from water.

People often buy orangutan babies on the black market. In order to get such a baby, you often have to kill an adult female, because she doesn’t give up a child just like that.

Due to the deforestation of tropical forests, the number of orangutans has greatly decreased.The view is on the verge of extinction, so 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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