Which country do orangutans come from

In recent years, these gentle red great apes have had the unfortunately honour on of becoming the public face of deforestation and the problem of palm oil. Only found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the Orangutan is a magnificent, but critically endangered, species. Well, multiple species. Three different species of Orangutan have been identified: the Bornean, the Sumatran, and the Tapanuli, which was only confirmed as a species in With their hand-like feet, orangutans are incredibly dexterous and agile, travelling with ease through the trees.

Like all great apes, they have large brains. They use tools such as sticks to fish termites, ants and bees out of holes in trees.

They have also been observed making themselves a type of glove from leaves which protects their hands from thorny branches and spiky fruit.

Orangutans even a rudimentary equivalent of an umbrella, as they hold large leaves over their heads to shelter from the rain! While they are tenaciously resourceful, orangutan population is in decline due to the devastation of their habitats. Estimates put their population at 57, - , Bornean, less than 14, Sumatran and fewer than Tapanuli orangutans.

Because of this dependency, the reproduction cycle of the orangutan is slower than in other primates. A wild orangutan can live for up to 45 years, and an orangutan in captivity can live for up to 60 years. Orangutans are one of the closest human relatives in the animal kingdom, and humans and orangutans share 97 percent of the same DNA.

When a male orangutan is nearly fully grown around the age of , it develops the characteristic flappy cheek-pads known as flanges protruding from the face. The larger the flanges, the more dominant the male. Orangutan males can travel over long distances and they live isolated from other males.

Orangutans have a long infancy. They cling to their mothers and are transported on her back for the first years of their lives. The orangutan is nursed by its mother until the age of eight, which is the longest nursing time in all mammals. The females live alone or in small groups of closely related individuals, and they often remain in the same forest area in which they were born. Toggle navigation. Species and distribution Orangutans live exclusively in Sumatra and Borneo in Southeast Asia, and it is the only great ape found outside of Africa.

The habitats of the orangutan The remaining wild populations of orangutans live in the rainforest, usually in low-lying peat forests and other fertile rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra. Population The largest remaining species of orangutans is the Bornean species Pongo pygmaeus. This is largely for agriculture and infrastructure such as roads , but forest fires are also becoming more frequent with climate change. The good news is that studies have shown deforestation is slowing down in Borneo.

And Indonesia and Malaysia are setting stronger requirements for forest protection. Considering their standing height is around 1. Orangutans are incredibly dexterous and use both hands and feet while gathering food and travelling through the trees. Like us, orangutans have four fingers and a thumb, and fingernails. Their feet look almost exactly the same as their hands — designed for agile climbing and gripping. Young orangutans stay with their mother until they reach around 7 years old.

Infants are so attached to their mums that they ride on her body and sleep in her nest until they develop their own skills to survive on their own. Because of this long learning curve, orangutans only have young once every 7 — 9 years, which is the longest birth interval of any land mammal. Some adult male orangutans develop flaps of fatty tissue on both sides of their face - known as flanges - which develop when they're fully mature, at around 35 years old.

An orangutan makes its nest in around 10 minutes, by pulling several large branches together, using smaller branches for a mattress and binding the structure together by weaving in more supple branches. In wet weather, they sometimes add a roof.

As orangutans make a new nest to sleep in every night, we actually use their nests to estimate their population size in any given area.

As you might have seen in Our Planet, some Sumatran orangutans use tools - like sticks to get termites, ants or bees out of tree holes. These clever creatures have also been observed making a 'glove' out of leaves when handling prickly fruits or thorny branches. A huge spiky fruit called durian are the favourite fruit of orangutans — it's best known for its stench, which has been likened to sewage, rotting flesh and smelly socks.

It's estimated that over , Bornean orangutans were lost between and