Orangutan Facts

Info about Orangutans. Know them and love them.

* Adult males lead mostly solitary lives (except when consorting with females.)
* Females associate with their infant and juvenile offspring and occasionally an adult sister or mother for short periods of time.
* Males communicate by the "long call" for territorial and courting purposes.
* Both sexes are arboreal, spending most of their time in trees, building nests at night, swinging through the trees, and eating in the trees.
* The lighter an orangutan is, the more active; as they grow older and heavier, they become slower and more cautious, testing each branch before putting their full weight on it.
* They rarely descend from treetops to ground; when they do, they usually walk on all fours (quadrupedal).
* Orangutans’ arms are stronger and longer than their legs (1½ times longer).
* Their reach from fingertip to fingertip can be as long as 8 feet.
* They pucker up their lips to feel the texture of a piece of fruit or food before they bite into it. .
* While they are primarily herbivorous and love jungle fruits like durian, jackfruit, and lychee nuts….orangutans have been observed in the wild catching and eating a small animal called a slow loris.
* Females only give birth every 7 to 9 years, and their gestation period is about nine months (227 to 275 days).
* Infants nurse on their mothers for 4 to 5 years and stay in their mother’s nest for about 7 to 8 years.
* Females raise their infants alone.
* Orangutans can live 40 years in the wild and over 50 years in captivity.

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