Orangutans Essay, Research Paper

Orangutan means Man of the Forest in the Malay language. This name is appropriate considering how similar to humans they are, yet humans are the main threat towards the extinction of these great creatures. In prehistoric times, the number of orangutans in the world was about three hundred to four hundred thousand, and they ranged from China, all throughout Southeast Asia. Their present status is endangered, only twenty thousand left in the world. These orangutans are only found naturally on the island of Borneo, and the northeast tip of another island Sumatra, both of which are in the Indonesian Archipelago.

Their population is endangered in the wild for two major reasons. One reason which is a concern world wide, for many reasons, is deforestation. People have been destroying the land for various reasons, mostly for agricultural area. The forests where the orangutans live is very important, because unlike gorillas, orangutans can not travel far by land. Orangutans usually travel through the trees, and when they are cut down, the orangutans have no place to live, and no place to find food to survive. Another reason for their major decline in population is because smugglers come to the islands, and kill of the mothers to get babies which they then sell off in the United States, and other countries. During the trip not many survive, in fact, only one in nine orangutans that are brought by smugglers survive. Once they are brought to the countries they are sold off at about the equivalent to twenty thousand US dollars, yet the buyers do not know that orangutans do not make very good pets, when they are young, they may be cute, but, towards adolescence the orangutans are about five feet tall, and two hundred pounds, and their strength is far more than the average human. Lately, in the news, there were many forest fires in the are of Indonesia, because of El Nino. These fires burned down much of the orangutans natural habitat in Indonesia this past summer.

The orangutan is a very interesting animal, it is much like humans, physically, and mentally. Some scientists say that orangutans are our intellectual equals, in that they can solve problems they are faced with just as well as we can, and their intelligence is relatively similar. When in captivity, they can even learn to communicate with humans through sign language, to ask for things of interest, such as food and contact. Along with the other great apes (gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees), orangutans share much of our DNA, and much of them is the same as us. They have the same number of teeth as humans, they are just a little bit smaller than us, yet they are a lot stronger.

Physically, much of their growth is like humans. Females have a menstrual cycle of 29-32 days, and the gestation period is slightly less than nine months. When they are born, usually a single infant will weigh approximately one and a half to two kilograms. The average weight of male orangutans is between 180 and 200 pounds, for females, between 90 and 140 pounds. The average height of the orangutan is about 5 feet for males, and 4 feet for females. Offspring have three stages, infancy (0-4 years), juvenile (4-7), adolescent (7-10 males, 7-12, females). Until they have passed the adolescent stage, they will stay with the mother. Females become sexually mature at twelve yet they will not have their first babies until about fifteen. Males attain sexual maturity and full growth at 15. Males have a large cheek pads which lets females know that they are fully grown. These may not fully develop until the age of twenty, so male orangutans will resort to rape until the age of fifteen. The life expectancy for an orangutan in the wild is around thirty-five, yet in good captive conditions they can live to be fifty.

Orangutans are the only true arboreal animals in the world. They stay in trees for most of their lives, and are considered very solitary or semi-solitary. Because the trees can not support the weight of more than one adult male, and because they need a large area to forage over they travel alone. Mothers can travel with their baby on their back. Sub-adult orangutans may play with each other or the siblings. The territory of an individual adult male may overlap with the territories of several females. Orangutans have large home territories, but usually travel over only a small portion of that territory on any given day. Most of their day is spent foraging for food and resting. Males have large laryngeal (throat) sacs that are used for their vocalizations. Orangutans have at least 18 vocalizations. Males give “long call’ vocalizations. The exact function of these calls is unknown. They may serve to attract mates, announce the presence and location of a high-ranking male, or may express discontent on the part of the utterer. When males do occasionally meet they will exhibit aggressive displays–stare, inflate pouches, shake branches. If one male does not back down, they may grab and bite each other. Orangutans sleep in the forks of trees where they pull in other branches to form a nest. Chimpanzees build similar nests, but orangutans differ in that they often build a roof out of branches to provide shelter from heavy downpours. They will usually find a new place to sleep and make a new nest each night. Orangutans will occasionally build daytime nests also.

The orangutan has adapted over the years into the perfectly suited creatures in their habitat. Because of their quickness and the fact that they are arboreal, they rarely are killed by predators, except maybe one rare occasion when they will come down, and the young will get killed by large snakes. Their hands and feet have been well developed, and also the fact that their arms are 1.5 times longer than their legs, and very powerful, is perfect for swinging from trees. The wild orangutan’s diet consists mostly of fruit. Surprisingly, fruit is often scarce in the rain forest, and orangutans must have a large home range over which to forage and find food. Orangutans will also feed on leaves, shoots, insects, bark, and woody lianas. Orangutans will occasionally supplement their diet with eggs and small vertebrates. Sometimes the orangutans eating habits help out the forests, because when they eat as they travel they discard the seeds of fruits that they eat in a different area of the forest, which helps the plant population spread throughout (Footnote 1).

Many projects are working to save orangutans. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s SSPs (Species Survival Plans) are special programs designed by a team of zoo and wildlife professionals to help orangutans, and many other endangered species. The SSPs outline breeding plans, work to increase public awareness and education, help conduct research, and in some cases, organize programs to reintroduce captive-bred wildlife into secure habitats.

A handful of rehabilitation sites, such as Tanjung Puting National Park, in Borneo, help return orangutans to the wild after confiscation from smugglers or private owners. National parks and reserves on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo work to save orangutans and many other species. Field studies, such as the work conducted by Birute Galdikas in Borneo, help to increase our knowledge about these fascinating creatures and help insure their survival.

The Orangutan Fund Australia, is a registered charity, affiliated with the Orangutan Foundation International and is dedicated to the preservation of the orangutan and its rain forest habitat through research, conservation and education. It has been admitted to the Federal Government’s Register of Environmental Organizations. It supports the work of Dr. Birute Galdikas, the world’s foremost authority on orangutans, who with her fellow primatologists, Jane Goodall (studying chimpanzees) and Dian Fossey (studying gorillas) has been responsible for great advances in our understanding of mankind’s closest relatives, the great apes, and the need to act urgently to preserve them. Dr. Galdikas has been honored by the United States (”Hero of the Earth” Award – 1991, Chico Mendes Award – 1992-1993) the United Nations (United Nations “Global 500″ Environmental Award – 1993), Canada ( Order of Canada) and has received various awards in Indonesia . Funds raised by the Orangutan Fund Australia go to support the work of the Orangutan Research and Conservation Project in Kalimantan, Borneo, which for the past 27 years, has been studying orangutans in their natural rain forest habitat, preventing the killing, illegal capture or selling of orangutans and returning those which have been captured to the wild after rehabilitating them. A major part of the Project’s work is preserving the orangutan through protection of its rain forest habitat. As the population has been going down, many people and organizations have began to help out the orangutan.

Dr. Birute Galdikas has been studying the life of orangutans in Borneo where she lives among the orangutans and documents their lives. She started the ORCP (Orangutan Research and Conservation Program) with her former husband. The purpose of the program is to study the behavior and ecology of wild and ex-captive orangutans as well as the conservation of the orangutan and its rain forest habitat. She received her initial encouragement from Dr. Louis Leakey for which she named the camp location (Camp Leakey) and funding from a variety of sources. During the early years since 1971, the ORCP provided the only conservation presence in the area. Dr. Galdikas would assist the local forestry department by confiscating orangutans from government officials who kept them as pets. Using diplomacy and reason, she was able to convince officials and others to release the orangutan to her care so that they could be returned to the wild. Since 1971, over 200 orangutans have undergone rehabilitation. With the permission of the Indonesian authorities, the ORCP conducted patrols of the park and assisted the nature conservation authorities in protecting the park from poachers and illegal loggers. Now the Forestry Department has upgraded the Indonesian Nature Conservation Agency whose job it is to protect the park. The ORCP also has enabled Dr. Galdikas to collect over 150,000 hours of observations of wild orangutans documenting their life histories over three generations. Dozens of new insights into orangutan behavior, ecology and intelligence has emerged from the work conducted by the work of the ORCP. The ORCP has served as a base of support to Indonesian and foreign students who conduct field research on orangutans, Gibbons, monkeys, and other animals and phenomena. There are many more organizations that help out the orangutans, such as, Orangutan Foundation International, Balikpapan Orangutan Society, just to name a few.

In conclusion, I think that the negligence on part of humans towards these great intelligent creatures can be stopped. Orangutans have lives and go through exactly what we go through, and people are starting to make this aware to us. If we kill off these great animals, for little reasons, like a little bit more land for farming, and wood we are headed nowhere. Things like this kill many animals, and by killing an endangered specie it is moving us towards the extinction of these animals we hurt.