If that does not work, he may attack. Around 60% of the Orangutans’ diet is fruits. Most dramatically, in 1986 a gorilla in Jersey Zoo in the UK acted in a protective way after a boy fell into a gorilla enclosure. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881;
[email protected]. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". Some of the threats to the survival of the Orangutans include deforestation, illegal hunting, and most recently forest fires. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the Bornean sub-species of orangutan as Endangered and the Sumatran sub-species as Critically Endangered. I believe it was an ancient Roman text I was reading that refers to the African Forest people, hairy all over, very large and muscular etc. However, Orangutans also build nests for comfort and for hiding away from predators such as the leopard. Poachers are also killing orangutans for food for the so-called bush meat trade. found here: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/orangutan/, http://media.giphy.com/media/11bXzOD6l4WRP2/giphy.gif. The group pins the blame on economic pressures along with human greed and ignorance. Remember, the cheek flaps are on the males only, and the bigger they are, the further you want to be from it. Usually, females start reproducing at age 17 whereas the males become sexually active at age 15. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/the-dark-truth-behind-video-of-an-orangutan-feeding-tiger-cubs/. The encounter has gone down in television history, because some of the young gorillas started playing with Attenborough. A book chapter published in 2015 pulled together all the existing data and tried to figure out how aggressive apes really are. Orangutans are an endangered species today. During wet seasons, they include a roof on their nests. A 2014 study of human-animal relationships in zoos documented only a handful of cases of gorilla aggression. I always felt like if I somehow got lost in the jungle and found some orangutans, I would be ok. The males also possess enormous cheek flaps called flanges, as well as large throat pouches. Other times, they seem to know exactly what they're doing. Something I always thought was really cool was the meaning of "orangutan.". Fossey found that the gorillas were hardly ever violent. As far as females are concerned, they prefer males with them, over … This orangutan may have been fooled by this trick, but the facts are, orangutans are no fools. Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. Some interesting facts about Orangutans are as follows; 1. The researchers were following the gorillas, and reported that they sometimes "grasped our legs with their hands". Orangutans spend 90% of their time alone on the trees from where they feed, play, and sleep. But the gorillas Attenborough met had been carefully habituated to humans over many years, and everyone involved knew how to treat them with respect. The report cites other attacks in Bwindi, Uganda, but only when the gorillas were raiding crops outside their park boundaries. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. “The needs of so many people with little landmass are pressingly urgent, allowing little time for planning or care about the environment.” Readers can help by donating time or money to the group, or by contributing to its adopt-an-orangutan program whereby donated funds go toward caring for specific orphaned orangutans. For more information about the unsustainable orangutan tourism at the SORC, click on the link below:https://www.fotomalaysia.org/sepilok-orangutan-tourism-heres-whats-wrong/Others:https://www.fotomalaysia.org/covid-19-time-for-change-at-sepilok-orangutan-rehab-centre/https://www.fotomalaysia.org/swds-dubious-plan-to-release-two-orphaned-sepilok-orangutans/https://www.fotomalaysia.org/was-sepilok-orangutans-release-a-success/https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2016/05/18/orangutan-death-exposes-malpractice-at-sepilok/ Males are distinctively bigger than female Orangutans. 4. 8. They live in groups, in which one dominant male silverback controls several females and youngsters. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. They inhabit tropical forests and are said to be among the animals with the closest relations to humans. However, those that live in captivity may live as long as 50-60 years. Mature male orangutans have large flappy cheek-pads, known as flanges. A 2009 report into conflict between humans and apes documents how a silverback male attacked a man in the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary in Cameroon. Chimpanzees on the other hand are just plain evil. © 2020 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc. Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. When you're on the internet, nobody knows you're an orangutan. In different circumstances, gorillas can be truly dangerous. Orangutans that live in the wild forests have a lifespan of 30-40 years. It found that when visitor numbers went up the gorillas became more aggressive, both towards visitors and each other. Melissa Hogenboom is BBC Earth's feature writer. But it's okay cause he's super cute! It's incredible. Deforestation, driven by logging, oil palm, mining and paper mills, continues to be the main culprit. November 12, 2020 — Carolyn Barber | Opinion, 2 hours ago — Chelsea Harvey and E&E News, 5 hours ago — Emily V. Driscoll and Jared Kaplan. I'd like to do more research &make sure this is accurate. There are no known instances of a captive gorilla killing a human. In the wake of the tragic killing of Harambe the gorilla, we explore the evidence for whether these great apes pose a danger to people. But in captivity they cannot escape their enclosure to take themselves out of a potentially stressful situation, such as the one Harambe faced. 5. Orangutans are one of the noisiest creatures on earth. SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. The public outrage has mainly focused on whether it was truly necessary to kill Harambe. Often, they copy things humans do for seemingly no reason which is why it's actually more fitting than people know that King Louie in Jungle Book was an orangutan. But decades of research into gorillas does offer some clues. Orangutans are extremely strong animals and visitors at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC) have been attacked in the past. Even when attacks do occur, they are rarely fatal. I'd worked it out in my own mind as being that it was because their hair was a ginger/orange colour, and "utan" was a suffix that meant a creature with that trait (like how American means a person from America/Martian means something from Mars). Don't just waste time, learn something too!