Orangutan Indonesia

As nighttime approaches in a tropical rain forest in parts of Sumatra and Borneo in Asia, orangutans prepare for sleep. In forks of trees high off the ground, shaggy, red-haired apes bend branches down to form comfortable mattresses of leaves and twigs. They sometimes add a roof built from more branches, so that if it rains they will stay dry. Though an adult male orangutan can weigh up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms)—females weigh about half what males do—orangutans spend most of their time up in the trees. They are the largest of all arboreal animals. Equipped with very long, powerful arms and

hook-shaped hands and feet, these apes climb and swing from tree to tree with ease. They reach from one tree to the next with their long arms, grasping the next branch with long hands or feet, and swing their bodies across the gap. If a baby following its mother reaches a gap between trees that is too wide for it to navigate, its mother makes a living bridge for the baby to scamper across.

Sometimes heavier males can't find branches strong enough to hold their weight, so they climb down to get to the next suitable tree. On the ground, orangutans walk on all fours.Orangutans find their food in the trees where they live. More than half their diet consists of fruit. They also eat nuts, bark, and other parts of plants and trees. Every once in a while they eat insects such as ants and termites, as well as bird eggs. Orangutans even find the water they need for drinking up in the trees—in hollows, on leaves, or even on their own fur after a rain. 

Trees are essential to every aspect of the orangutans' world. The cutting down of trees—deforestation—has landed this species on the endangered species list.

FAST FACTS
The scientific name for orangutan is Pongo pygmaeus.

Orangutan predators include tigers, leopards, and even large pythons.

Adult orangutans are solitary animals, generally coming together only to mate.

A female orangutan has a baby, on average, only once every eight years.

Young orangutans may stay with their mothers for 11 or 12 years.

Male orangutans have territories that they defend against other male orangutans.Sometimes male orangutans fight, defending 

Orangutans live in the wild only in Borneo and northern Sumatra.

Orangutans live to be about 35 years old in the wild; in captivity they can live 50 years or more.

Orangutans are considered to be highly intelligent animals.

Orangutans are threatened 

Poaching also threatens these animals.

When a number of orangutans come together to feed, the youngsters often play together, while the adults ignore one another.

About 97 percent of an orangutan's genetic makeup is the same as a human's.

As male orangutan adults get older, their faces develop cheek pads and pouches on their throats.

In the Malay language, orangutan means "person of the forest."