Orangutan

The orangutan is scientifically known as the Pongo pygameus. It belongs to the family “Hominidae,” along with the other great apes. In the past, orangutans’ geographic distribution ranged from Southern China to Southeast Asia. Now, this species is only found in Southeast Asia on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Their habitats include multiple tropical rainforests. There is an abundance of trees in the habitats of orangutans since they are highly arboreal animals, spending more than half their time in trees. Orangutans exhibit suspensory locomotion through using their exceptionally long arms to swing from branch to branch while moving through the trees. Their hands and feet are long and narrow with opposable thumbs and big toes, assisting…

Introduction Orangutans spend most of their lives high in the trees; they are seldom seen on the ground. Each night, they build a new nest or add to an old nest to support them while they are sleeping (Caldecott, 2005). Home ranges are typically between 5-25 km for males, and 1-10 km for females (Caldecott, 2005). As you can imagine, orangutans that live in captivity don’t have homes remotely close to those ranges. Not only is it smaller, their enclosures also lack forest canopies for them to…

research has suggested that orangutans can differentiate between individuals with much less interaction required. The orangutans spend the majority of their time alone. It is estimated they spend 5% of their time associated in social situations. Additionally, very little is known about how the orangutans recognize faces in specific situations. Are they able to discriminate? Can they recognize faces just as accurate as species who are frequently involved in intense social situations? To find…

For my project, I chose to design and create a zoo enclosure for a “family” of Bornean Orangutans otherwise known by their scientific name; Pongo pygmaeus. For the construction of this enclosure, I used a box, which I spray painted and cut the top off. This allowed me to mimic a designated viewing area where the Orangutans would hypothetically be placed. Using cardboard walls was not my first choice but I wanted to show specific boundaries of the enclosure. Orangutans are an arboreal species,…

In the hard sciences, also from the WWF, 96.4% of our DNA is the same, and thus leads them to be one of our closest relative. Orangutan having low birth rates because they have long periods of maturing stage, 6 to 10 years before their offspring could have another, and there is only birth at a time; due to these they are now labeled ‘critically extinct’, meaning, within 50 years they could be extinct in the wild.(Singleton, 2014) The real issue for me is: We are the ones destroying their…

Babchi (Psoralea corylifolia), in which P. corylifolia has a stagnant and steeply declining wild population. This is primarily due to its use in Indian Ayurveda, Tamil Siddha and also Chinese medicine systems of traditional medicine. Another circumstance, would be that of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), native to south central China. In which Chinese scientists estimate that only roughly 1500 individuals are left in the wild. Making matters worse, many giant pandas have been overserved…

alike in many different ways? It has been proven by many universities and scientist. In a recent article I just read in the LA Times Newspaper is called “A Change at Heart about Animals” by Jeremy Rifkin. In this article he has shown us that animals have a sense of self, emotion, and the ability to learn languages. Those are just some of the things showing how we’re alike. There are probably so many more ways people haven’t discovered yet or haven’t been announced. I agree with Jeremy Rifkin…

According to Jane Goodall, “ Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans have been [lasting] for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest, living [wild] lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would [state] that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in [concord] with the environment” (Environment Quotes). Palm oil nourishes one’s appearance and rejuvenate the life of food products. The demand for this product has greatly increased in the past years, but…

Culture is a society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas and characteristics used to generate behavior and reflect behavior and other primates besides humans, like gorillas, chimps, and orangutans do, in fact, have culture. Chimps copy each other into adulthood developing cultural behaviors by imitating their peers and research on gorillas, chimps and orangutans have shown they use tools, communicate with each other and even mourn the deaths of each other. This research paper will explain…

INTRODUCTION Orangutans, who are closest to our specie of homo sapiens¸ alongside the chimpanzees, gorillas and the other great apes – are primarily and wildly native to the forests and islands of Indonesia and Malaysia. Their chances of survival in modern day is critically endangered by both human causes (primarily) and natural causes (most of which chiefly arises out of human causes as well). The former includes aspects like deforestation, palm oil plantation and illegal logging; whereas the…