Orangutan Facts: The Person of the Forest With a Two-Metre Reach
An orangutan peeling a banana looks thoughtful because it usually is — few animals plan, practise and problem-solve quite like this red ape. It is also, sadly, running out of forest. Meet the orangutan, the world's biggest tree-dweller and one of our closest relatives, in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.
Watch Orangutan at Snack Time Zoo:
The Person of the Forest
Orangutan comes from two Malay words — orang, meaning person, and hutan, meaning forest: the person of the forest. Spend a few minutes watching one and the name stops sounding like a nickname. Orangutans share about 97 percent of their DNA with us, study the world carefully before acting, and have thoughtful, expressive faces framed by long, shaggy red hair found in no other great ape.
The Biggest Animal in the Trees
Orangutans are the largest tree-dwelling animals on the planet. An adult male can weigh as much as an adult human, yet he spends most of his life high in the canopy, moving hand over hand through the branches. His arms are the secret: stretched wide, an orangutan's arm span can reach about 2 metres, much wider than the animal is tall, and its hook-shaped hands and feet can each grip like a hand.
Clever Hands, Leaf Umbrellas
Orangutans are master tool users. Wild ones fashion sticks to fish termites from nests, pry seeds from spiky fruit and dig honey from beehives, and they use leaves as gloves, napkins and cups. When rain pours down, an orangutan simply holds a bundle of big leaves overhead as an umbrella. Every evening it bends and weaves branches into a fresh sleeping nest — a new bed, built from scratch, almost every single night.
The Longest Childhood of All
No animal outside humans spends longer growing up. A young orangutan stays with its mother for about eight years, riding on her body, sharing her nests and learning everything: which fruits are safe, where they ripen in each season, and how to build a bed. That slow pace means a mother raises only one baby every seven to nine years — which is one reason losing forest hurts orangutans so badly, and why they are now critically endangered.
Quick Summary
The orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is the red person of the forest: the largest animal that lives in trees, a tool-making, nest-building genius with the longest childhood of any non-human — and a critically endangered one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the word orangutan mean?
It comes from the Malay words orang (person) and hutan (forest) — person of the forest. Local people gave them the name long before scientists did.
How long do baby orangutans stay with their mothers?
About eight years, the longest childhood of any animal except humans. Babies ride on their mothers and learn feeding, travel and nest-building skills before going independent.
Do orangutans use tools?
Yes, regularly. They use sticks to extract insects, seeds and honey, leaves as umbrellas, gloves and cups, and they build a brand-new sleeping nest from branches nearly every night.
Why are orangutans critically endangered?
Their rainforest home in Borneo and Sumatra is being cleared for timber and palm-oil plantations, and their very slow breeding — one baby every seven to nine years — means populations recover painfully slowly.