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 unique in the ape world. There are four great ape species: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from Asia; the others all come from Africa.

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). Even the hair color of the orangutan, a bright reddish brown, is unique in the ape world. The orangutan has the most remarkable ability to travel through the forest treetops. They make their home in these trees and build nests each night out of leaves and branches in the very tops of the trees. This is where they live and sleep - sometimes as much as 100 feet above the ground. The orangutan has little need to come down from the trees, as they are uniquely adapted for their arboreal lifestyle.

Almost all of the food they eat grows in the treetops and the frequent rains fill the leaves thus supplying their drinking water. When water is difficult to get, they chew leaves to make a sponge to soak up water in tree cavities. When it rains very hard the orangutan makes an umbrella for himself out of big leaves. Many people are familiar with the studies that have shown chimpanzees using tools, such as termite-fishing sticks. Recent studies show that some populations of orangutans also fashion tools to aid in the difficult task of foraging for food.

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. An orangutan's lifespan is about 35-40 years in the wild, and sometimes into the 50's in captivity. They reach puberty at about 8 years of age, but a female isn't ready for her own baby until she's in her teens.

The orangutan has the longest childhood dependence on the mother of any animal in the world, because there is so much for a young orangutan to learn in order to survive. The babies nurse until they are about six years of age. The young males may stay close by their mothers for a few more years but the females may stay until they are into their teens, allowing them to observe mothering skills as they watch their younger sibling being raised by the mother. Orangutan females only give birth about once every 8 years - the longest time between births of any mammal on earth. (This results in only 4 to 5 babies in her lifetime). This is why orangutan populations are very slow to recover from disturbance.

Food is often scarce in the rain forest and that is why the orangutan is a semi-solitary creature. In times of great abundance of food, orangutans may use the opportunity to socialize and gather in small groups. Their diet is made up of bark, leaves, flowers, a variety of insects, and most importantly, over 300 kinds of fruit. The mothers must teach the babies what food to eat, where to find that food, in which trees and during which seasons. It is thought that the orangutan must have a very detailed map of the forest in her mind, and detailed knowledge of the fruiting cycles of many species of trees. (This prevents wasting valuable energy searching for fruit trees randomly, and traveling to a certain fruiting tree whose fruits will not ripen for some time). The babies must eventually know hundreds of species of plants and trees, which ones are edible, and how to process them; some are very difficult to eat because they are protected by sharp spines and shells.

The throat sac is used to make a very notable and recognizable call that echoes through the forest. This is called the " Long Call" and is used to locate and advertise their presence to females or warn other males away
Males often weigh over 200 pounds, where females are 1/3 to 1/2 his size .The males generally remain solitary until they encounter a female who is receptive to mating. They will stay with the female for several days to ensure a successful mating but will soon resume their solitary life. Due to their large size, males will more often travel on the ground than females.

ORANG-UTAN SURVIVAL
A long, long time ago, orang-utans were spreading over the South-east Asia region, and, from fossil remains, even up to the region of southern China. Nowadays, the orang-utan is an endangered species, and they are only found in the tropical forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia. The population of orang-utans in their natural habitats has fallen dramatically over the past two decades. Recent estimates place the numbers at between 10,000 and 15,000 in Kalimantan and from 5,000 - 9,000 in Sumatra.

Damaging their habitat, the illegal hunting and trading of young orang-utans has reduced the orang-utan population while at the same time many environmental and man-induced factors have resulted in more and more infants than ever being abandoned or mistreated. Contributory factors to the reduction of the orang-utans' habitat are forest clearing for agriculture, plantations, and slash-and-burn cultivation, and also deforestation caused by illegal tree cutting. Orangutan numbers have plummeted across their range in Indonesia and Malaysia largely due to destruction of their habitat. Orangutans favor the lowland regions of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra where illegal logging has spiraled out of control.

Although the keeping of orang-utans as pets is forbidden in Indonesia, the trading of young orang-utans still persists. Indonesians and foreigners pay a high price for these young orang-utans. However, these people are unaware that their actions will cause the illegal pet trade to continue. To get a young orang-utan suitable for a pet, a hunter might first have to kill the mother, with the result that the baby often falls from the tree. The trip from the forest to the illegal market is also extremely hazardous, with a rough calculation that only one in three orang-utans will survive the ordeal. In the past, many young orang-utans have been smuggled to Taiwan and kept as domestic pets. In such cases, the young orang-utans are often treated as if they were a "children's toy", but once they reach five years of age, they become wild, because of their great strength and size and their natural instincts. At this time, many orang-utans are caged, and suffer further through maltreatment and carelessness. Orang-utans are also susceptible to human diseases and often become sick through a lack of proper nutrition. (Ind.handbook 2002).

Therefore, orang-utans have to be saved, protected and preserved. In order to safeguard and protect the orang-utan and other wildlife species in Indonesia, since 1978, the Directorate of Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management (Direktorat Perlindungan dan Pengawetan Alam, or PPA as abbreviated), has set the target of designating about 10% of land as preserved areas. There are at present 320 natural reserves and natural parks in Indonesia, and more are proposed.

The PPA has adopted the modern natural conservation practice, which emphasizes the conservation of the entire ecosystem. This is necessary as it is often not possible to preserve wildlife without its habitat. The orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus - "man of the jungle"), for example, is very dependent on primary forest habitat. Therefore to protect their habitat, the PPA in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has established "Orang Utan Rehabilitation" Projects in Bohorok in Sumatra and in the Tanjung Putting reserve in Kalimantan for retraining illegally captured orang-utans for life in the wilderness. Several of these centres are described in more detail below.

ORANG UTAN REHABILITATION CENTRES

TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK, CENTRAL KALIMANTAN
The Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan is the oldest of Indonesia's orang-utan rehabilitation sites and according to Shaun McVicar, a Jakarta-based journalist for the Garuda in-flight magazine, "the most difficult and rewarding to visit".

Camp Leakey, the oldest of the park's camps, is situated deep in the heart of Tanjung Puting. Canadian scientist Dr Birute Galdikas founded Camp Leakey in 1971 and named it after the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey, who was the mentor of Dr Galdikas, Dianne Fossey (known for her work with mountain gorillas) and Dr Jane Goodall (known for her work with chimpanzees).

Camp Leakey was originally a research station and was later used as a rehabilitation centre for local orang-utans who had been born in the wild but had found their way into the human world - usually as pets. At the centre they were re-introduced, as much as possible, into the wild. About 1987, Dr Galdikas brought the use of Camp Leakey for rehabilitation purposes to an end and opened a new rehabilitation centre, Tanjung Harapan - the first camp that visitors to Tanjung Puting encounter.

At Tanjung Harapan, after a thorough check for diseases in the camp's clinic, formerly captive orang-utans are released into the surrounding forest where they learn to socialise with other semi-wild orang-utans, to forage for food and build nests. Regular feedings take place, moving deeper and deeper into the forest as the animals acclimatise to their new environment. Visitors are welcome at Tanjung Harapan and they can trek into the jungle to watch the feedings.

Once orang-utans stop going to feedings on a regular basis, they are moved to Tanjung Puting's second rehabilitation centre, Pondok Tanguay, located even deeper in the national park, and also open to visitors. (S.McVicar,"Garuda",11/97).

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