Orangutans are highly intelligent with an ability to reason and think. This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same DNA as humans. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape "Orang Hutan" literally translating into English as "People of the Forest". In times past they would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.

Orangutans are only found on the islands of
Sumatra and Borneo

The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is actually the largest tree living mammal in the world. The rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping nests in the trees, but are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the ground).

Orangutan is pronounced orang-u-tan, as in suntan, not -tang. Orangutans are beautiful red-haired mammals who live in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra in the countries of Indonesia and Malaysia. In Malay "orang" means person, while "hutan" means forest, thus orangutan means "person of the forest." The indigenous or native people of Borneo consider orangutans to be another tribe or people, thus the name orangutan.

Orangutans can be found living in the rain forest tree tops. Orangutans spend 90% of their lives in the trees and sleep in nests they build in the tree tops. Because orangutans live in trees they are referred to as arboreal animals. Did you know they are the largest arboreal animals in the world

Orangutans have four hands instead of two hands and two feet. This makes them graceful and swift while swinging through the trees but it makes walking on the ground very slow and awkward. That is why the orangutan is at a great disadvantage on the ground, and why the orangutan rarely comes down from the treetops. Their food is there, their home is there and they are safer there.

• Males: At maturity males have big cheek pads. This distinguishes them from females. Full grown males weigh 90-110 kg (198-242 pounds) and are .91-1.2 m (3-4 feet) tall. Males are not sociable. They stake out areas which they defend as their own home and fight other males if necessary.
• Females: A female will usually only bear three or four young in a lifetime, because she produces one offspring at a time every 8 to 9 years. Newborns cling to the mother for two years, then they will start to learn survival skills from the mother, and finally, will leave with other young orangutans at the age of eight. At fifteen orangutans lives on their own.
• Diet: Orangutans are omnivores, which means they eat a variety of foods - both meat and plants - like fruit, leaves and small animals. However, 70% of a wild orangutan diet is fruit. The juicy, smelly burin fruit (looks like a cantaloupe with thorns and smells like rotten eggs, but its taste is sweet as honey) is one of their favorites. They also eat, flowers, bark and insects such as, termites and butterfly larva.
• Communication: Both males and females have a laryngeal sac. This can be filled with air when released a loud call is produced that can be heard throughout the jungle. The males' long call can be heard over many kilometers. It tells other males that "I am here, so stay away". When orangutans are annoyed they will smack their lips together to produce a sound called a 'kiss squeak'.
• Travel: Orangutans travel from tree to tree and will not cross to another tree until its hand is on another branch. When orangutans travel hand-over-hand, it is called hanging. If an orangutan comes to a gap in the forest, they will either find a tree top route around it or come to the ground.