Male Bornean Orangutan - Profile | Description | Facts

(Last Updated On: March 4, 2022)

The male Bornean orangutan, scientific name Pongo pygmaeus inhabits massive parts of Borneo, whereas the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii) and the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis) are restricted to northern Sumatra.

Male bornean orangutan profile

Male Bornean orangutan populations have declined by more than 50% over the previous 60 years, and the species’ habitat has been lowered by not less than 55% over the previous 20 years.

Male Orangutans are extraordinarily clever and have proven proof of tool use and tradition – traits as soon as believed to be uniquely human. Orangutans are inside our personal family, Hominidae, the great apes, although they’re the least intently associated great ape to people.

Despite being one in every of our closest family, human activities are having a devastating effect on the species. A serious risk they face is sustained habitat loss, roughly a 3rd of all the male Bornean orangutan range was in industrial forest reserves exploited for timber, and about 45% was in forest areas earmarked for conversion to agriculture or different land makes use of.

Orangutans are the slowest breeding of all mammal species, giving a start to a single younger every 6-8 years. The extremely long inter-birth interval signifies that a feminine orangutan can produce a most of 4 surviving younger throughout her lifetime.

With such a low reproductive fee even a small lower in numbers can result in extinction. Scientists predict that except quick motion is taken, the 2 orangutan species may very well be the first great ape to grow to be extinct within the wild.

The male Bornean orangutan differs in look from the Sumatran orangutan, with a broader face and shorter beard and in addition barely darker in coloration. Three subspecies are acknowledged, every localized to completely different components of the island:

Northwest male Bornean orangutans are probably the most threatened subspecies. Its habitat has been severely affected by logging and looking, and a mere 1,500 people or so stay. Many habitat patches within the space are small and fragmented.

Northeast male Bornean orangutans are the smallest in size and located in Sabah and eastern Kalimantan so far as the Mahakam River.

Central male Bornean orangutans are the subspecies with probably the most animals, with not less than 35,000 people.

Male Bornean orangutan Distribution

Male Bornean orangutans are endemic to the island of Borneo, in each of the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, in addition to in 4 of the 5 Indonesian Provinces of Kalimanthan: North, East, Central, and West Kalimantan.

Male bornean orangutan Description

The orangutan, with its distinctive red-orange hair, is the one ape that inhabits Asia. Weighing as much as 90 kg (200 lb.), the male Bornean orangutan is about 1-1.5 m tall (3.5-4.5 ft.) with an arm span as long as 2.5 m (8 ft.).

Male Bornean orangutans are largely solitary, solely socializing quickly with females throughout the mating process. To provoke this process, males ship out a “Long Call,” which could be heard as much as Three km (~2 mi.) away.

Boasting a Malay name that means “People of the Forest,” orangutans share 97% of the identical DNA as people. Not surprisingly, they possess great intelligence in addition to different human-like qualities.

For instance, male Bornean orangutans use instruments in their daily activities. They make use of branches to check water depth or poke termite holes, they usually make the most of leaves as umbrellas, sponges, or napkins.

Furthermore, analysis from the National Zoo in Washington, DC has demonstrated their great capability to motivate, remedy issues, and even use computer systems. And just like people, child orangutans cry, whimper, and smile at their moms.

Male Bornean orangutan Habitat and Ecology

A male Bornean orangutans’ inhabit the major and secondary forest, sometimes in lowland dipterocarp, freshwater, and peat swamp forests. Orangutans eat, sleep and journey within the timber, being energetic within the day spending nearly all of their time trying to find and consume meals.

They eat figs, durians, jackfruit, lychees, mangosteens, and mangos, in addition to leaves, seeds, ants, termites, and bark.

Living atop the rainforest canopies on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, the male Bornean orangutan is bodily well-adapted to its setting. Strong palms and hand-like feet, together with versatile hips and long arms permit the orangutan to dwell primarily in treetops.

Swinging from tree to tree, orangutans feed on fruit, leaves, bark, flowers, and bugs. They journey appreciable distances to eat their favorite fruits (normally unripe), understanding which of them are in season and the place to seek out them.

They drink water captured in leaves when out there, and in drier instances, they absorb moisture from tree hollows utilizing chewed leaf “sponges.”

Each night, they construct nests within the treetops with leaves and branches. In this fashion, they’ve little need to venture to the ground, the place their hand-like feet and elongated arms make strolling very awkward.

Male Bornean orangutan Behavior

The male Bornean orangutans are diurnal and infrequently come down from the timber. Small teams of females might journey with their infants searching for meals, however, grownup males are normally solitary.

While all-male Bornean orangutans are usually solitary they might have occasional social connections. Groups of 6 or more male Bornean orangutans are uncommon however could be discovered throughout instances of mast fruiting; when a gaggle of timber instantly fruit at the identical time.

Daily and seasonal actions change often and are influenced by the provision of fruit. Male Bornean orangutans use a number of strategies of locomotion. Brachiation is only seen in younger orangutans whereas older orangutans stroll quadrupedally, or often bipedally.

When strolling quadrupedally, they stroll on their fists reasonably than their knuckles, not like different great apes. male Bornean orangutans sleep in nest platforms manufactured from vegetation 40 to 60 feet off the ground.

Food is plucked with the fingers and the palm resulting from their lack of ability to make use of their thumbs. male Bornean orangutans can’t swim which makes rivers and different water sources impassable boundaries, limiting their range.

Male Bornean orangutan Food Habits

male Bornean orangutans are frugivorous and spend two to a few hours within the morning feeding avidly. Their diet consists of forest fruits, leaves and shoots, buds, sap, vines, spider webs, bird eggs, fungi, flowers, barks, and sometimes nutrient-wealthy soils.

Male Bornean orangutans have been documented consuming more than 500 plant species as a part of their diet. Fruits make up more than 60% of their whole dietary consumption and they’re going to migrate relying on fruit availability.

Male Bornean orangutan Communication and Perception

Male Bornean orangutans aren’t as social as different species of great apes and shouldn’t have as many social vocalizations.

The most distinguished type of communication for male Bornean orangutans is the long-call, a one to 2-minute call carried out solely by flanged males. The long-call could be heard from a number of kilometers away within the right circumstances.

The essential functions of long-calls are to tell different males of the caller’s presence (when unflanged males hear long-calls they flee the realm) and to call out to sexually responsive females.

Long-calls are spontaneous and don’t comply with any particular pattern. Some proof means that the long-call may even suppress the event of unflanged males.

When the unflanged males hear a long-call, stress hormones are produced which inhibit the event of the unflanged males. The different kind of calling produced by male Bornean orangutans is a fast-call, which is most frequently made after the male-to-male battle.

In addition to the long and quick calls, male Bornean orangutans smack their lips to supply sounds when in small social teams. When scared, male Bornean orangutans will funnel their lips and scream.

Role in Reproduction

Dominant flanged males usually have a longtime territory that can embody a number of females’ territories.

The number of females throughout the male’s territory will copulate with him and produce his offspring. Younger unflanged males usually can’t maintain a house range of their very own and are pressured to wander all through the forests.

When these small, wandering males come into contact with a feminine, the small unflanged male will drive copulation. This is completely different from the flanged males which can long-call; a call to assist receptive females to find him.

Females favor mating with flanged males, which can be a method to make sure safety from unflanged males.

At about 5 years of age, the offspring will start to make brief journeys by itself, normally staying close by to the mom.

The orangutan younger might begin to construct its personal nests as play, and can finally begin sleeping within the nests it builds. The offspring are normally weaned by Four years of age and can start adolescence quickly after.

The offspring will usually keep across the mom till the subsequent offspring are born. After this, the younger females set up their very own territory and the younger males journey the forest till they will set up their very own dwelling territory.

Conservation Status

Many of the problems surrounding orangutan depopulation stem from the impoverished state of Indonesia. Facing poverty and hunger, many Indonesians have turned to consume orangutan meat, unlawful logging, capturing infants for pet commerce, and utilizing slash and burn methods to show parts of the rainforest into palm oil plantations.

Slashing and burning have resulted not solely in a discount of fruit timber and habitat for orangutans, it has additionally exacerbated natural forest fires, inflicting widespread destruction. Read this interesting article, are human great apes?

Male Bornean Orangutan – Profile | Description | Facts | Behavior