THE PRIMATE ARTICLE‘’ ORANGUTAN’’

CLASSIFICATION

• Kingdom : Animalia
• Phylum : Chordata
• Class : Mammalia
• Order : Primates
• Family : Hominidae
• Subfamily : Ponginae
• Genus : Pongo
• Species : Pongo pygmaeus, Pongo obelii

TERMINOLOGY
The orangutan are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair native to Indonesia and Malaysia. The orangutan is an official state animal of sabah in Malaysia, their name derives from the malay and Indonesian words orang meaning person and utan meaning forestor person of the forest. The name of genus, Pongo comes from a 16th century account by Andrew Battle, an English sailor held prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola ( probably somewhere near the mouth of the Congo river ) which describes two anthropoid monsters named Pongo and Engeco. It is now believed that he was describing gorillas, but in the late 18th century it was believed that all great apes were orangutans. Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spendig nearly all of their time in the trees, making a new nest in the trees every night. Adult males are about 4,5 ft ( 1,4 m ) talland up to 180 lb ( 82 kg ) in weight. They are only found in rainforests on the island of borneo andSumatra. The population on the two isolated islands were classified as subspecies until recently, when they were elevated to full specific level and the three distinct population on borneo were elevated to subspecies.

CONSERVATION STATUS
The borneo population is about 50.000 in the wild and conservation status the borneo species of orangutans are highly endangered. The Sumatran population species is 7.000 to 7500 individuals and conservation status the Sumatran species is critically endangered. Orangutan habitat destruction due to logging, mining, and forest fire has beeb increasing rapidly in the last decade. Much of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development. There is also a major problem with the illegal trapping of baby orangutans for sale into the pet trade, the trappers usually kill the mother to steal the baby. Major conservation centres in Indonesia include those at Tanjung Putting in central Kalimantan, Kutai in east Kalimantan, Gunung Palung in west Kalimantan, Gunung Leuser in Aceh and north Sumatera. In Malaysia conservation areas include Semenggok in Sarawak and Sepilok near Sandakan in Sabah.

BEHAVIOUR
Like the other great apes, orangutans are remarkably intelligent. Orangutans are generally passive, aggression toward other orangutans is very common, they are solitary animals and can be fiercely territorial. Immature males will try to mate with any female and may succeed in forcibly copulating with her if she is also immature and not strong enough to fend him off. Mature females easily fend off their immature suitors, preferring to mate with a mature male. Wild orangutans are known to visit human run facilities for orphaned young orangutans released from illegal captivity, interacting with the orphans and probably helping them adapt in their return to living in the wild.

Posted in: orangutan,veterinary