tour and travel info

Orang utan

Posted on June 30th, 2008 in tourism news borneo, kalimantan, orang utan, tanjung puting national park

The name ‘orangutan’ means “man of the jungle” in Indonesia. They live only on the island of Borneo and in the northern corner of the island of Sumatra.
Orangutans are not only shaped by the forest they live in, they also shape the forest, through the seeds of wild fruits that pass through their digestive tracts and are scattered as they travel their home range.

They are the only surviving species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae (which also includes the extinct genera Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus).

Orangutans have a large, bulky body, a thick neck, very long, strong arms, short, bowed legs, and no tail. Orangutans are about 2/3 the size of the gorilla.

They are mostly covered with long reddish-brown hair.
The orangutan has a large head with a prominent mouth area. Adult males have large cheek flaps (which get larger as the ape ages).

Orangutans have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.

Orangutan hands are very much like ours; they have four long fingers plus an opposable thumb. Their feet have four long toes plus an opposable big toe. Orangutans can grasp things with both their hands and their feet. The largest males have an arm span of about 7.5 feet (2.3 m).

Orangutans are about 2/3 the size of the gorilla.
You can have an interact with Orang Utan in Tanjung putting National Park.

In Tanjung Puting National Park there is two different type of orangutan, first is orangutan who originally inhabitant in this park and we called it wild orangutan and second is the rehabilitant orangutan or ex-captive orangutan formerly confiscated and rescue from the people who keep them as a pet.

For the wild orangutan it is difficult to play or interact with them due to they are shy animal and always keep the distance with human. While with the ex-captive or rehabilitant orangutan you have a chance to play or interact with them.

It is not also recommend to feed them but in some cases is fine as long as you feed them with their natural food such as fruits.

For your information, actually they have their own food in the jungle such as many different kind of fruits, young leaves, bark, termites, shoots, and very rare happen they eat small birds or eggs if they completely run out their food.

Many of the orangutan which have already successfully rehabilitated still come to the rehabilitation center at Camp Leakey station to visit the rangers and to interactive with the new coming orangutans.