Orangutan: King of the Treetops

this episode was brought to you by curiosity stream the orangutan is one of our closest relatives so why are we pushing them to extinction hi i'm danielle and you're watching Animal Logic orangutan czar members of the grade 8 family and their genus is separated into three species the Bornean the Sumatran and the tappan uli orangutans their subfamily used to contain several other members including the Gigantopithecus which is the largest primate in the fossil record and could stand up to 3 metres tall orangutan czar found in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia and live in both mountainous forests and lowland swamps orangutan czar largely arboreal the most so of any of the great apes which is odd because they are so large males measure 1.4 meters in height and can weigh up to 75 kilograms females are smaller measuring up to one point one meters tall and they weigh about half the weight of a male that's not only size that separates the sexes males will grow very distinct facial flanges these are not bones and are instead held in place by their facial muscles they are usually only grown by the dominant male and the more powerful he is the greater the flange they have an extremely wide arm span about two meters the resting position for their hands forms a hook shape which makes hanging from branches effortless both their hands and feet are very capable as they both feature opposable thumbs their arms and legs have the same range of motion allowing them to easily contort their bodies to grip branches in a variety of settings male orangutan have throat pouches that amplify their calls which they use to attract mates intimidate competitors and to make a kiss weak sound it's pretty cute they mature at around 15 years of age though the males won't get their flanges until around age 20 if the male matures in an area with no other males present their flanges come in more quickly when a male here is a female call he'll track her down and force copulation females tend to prefer mating with clan to males as these dominant males will offer protection in their territory the females give growth during the high fruit season and will eat up to eleven thousand calories a day during low season when the food is more scarce they will intake only about 2,000 calories a day females will have their first baby at around 14 or 15 years of age and will only have a new baby every eight years their lifespan is roughly 40 years so at most she will have three or four babies in her entire life orangutans are the least social of the great apes only the moms and their children form bonds and even then they only stay together for about two years orangutans spend their morning foraging in the trees before napping until mid-afternoon then they'll travel to a new location in hopes of finding more food when they get there they spend the rest of their day building a nest they will pull together leafy branches and weave together leaves to create a rather cozy looking hammock their favorite food are ficus figs but they eat a wide variety of fruit leaves and bark they've also been observed eating honey eggs and small animals like the slow loris but occasionally they also eat small rocks we're not entirely sure why they do this but it's possible that they do it to ingest minerals which are not present in the fruit or as a way to absorb toxins or as a way to self-medicate this last theory may not be far off as they have been documented using plants in the coma Lena genus to treat inflammation this is especially interesting because they don't eat these plants they only use them to treat illness but that's not the only tool they use they also will use sticks to extract insects from holes and they will hold leaves in their mouths while making a kiss squeak to lower the frequency of the call and then make themselves sound bigger and they love magic orangutan czar pretty huge so their list of predators is fairly short they're primarily preyed upon by Tigers crocodiles and clouded leopards but their number-one predator is humans unfortunately all three species of orangutan are critically endangered there are a hundred and four thousand Bornean thirteen thousand Sumatran and just 800 Tappin uli orangutans left in the wild in the last 20 years one hundred and forty eight thousand orangutans have been killed in Borneo alone orangutan czar suffering from attacks on several fronts orangutan infants are targeted by poachers who capture them to be sold into the exotic pet trade and often the mothers are killed during the process in one particularly horrific case a female orangutan was captured and sold into the sex trade in a village in Southeast Asia orangutan czar also killed by farmers when they venture into their farms in search of food these pest killings are tied into another one of their problems deforestation since their food supplies are being increasingly cut down they have been venturing out of their comfort zone and into farms in search of food and are killed in retaliation by farmers earlier this year the body of an orangutan was found floating in a river in Indonesia it had been shot 130 times with airgun pellets had multiple machete wounds and was ultimately decapitated the two plantation workers who are responsible have since been arrested thank goodness orangutans also suffer from forest fires often fire will be used to clear land for farming and developing plantations as climate change continues to dry out these rainforests they become even more vulnerable to man-made fires which become harder to control in 2015 over 800,000 hectares of rainforests were lost to forest fires in Borneo alone these fires destroy the orangutan food habitat and the smoke confuses them making them very vulnerable to poachers unsustainable palm oil plantations are the biggest contributors to the decline in orangutan numbers not only do they tear down large sections of their habitat to build them but in the process they build roads into the otherwise inaccessible rainforests to which orangutans call home these roads allow for hunters to drive into their territory and easily pick them off as orangutans are rather slow-moving it is a very complicated problem that's going to be very hard to solve one starting point is to educate people that array attends aren't dangerous and don't need to be shot on sight you can help by sharing this video and hopefully it reaches the eyes of someone who doesn't yet know how amazing orangutans are you can also help by only buying products that contain sustainably sourced palm oil or no palm oil at all you can make a difference for orangutans with your purchasing decisions without drastically impacting your lifestyle living around endangered species can be very difficult especially when those species are competing for your resources to learn about what happens when humans and nature share the same home in Asia I highly recommend that you watch Asia secret lives hidden places which is streaming on curiosity stream right now the series focuses on what happens when humans cross over into the territory of endangered species you'll learn about the poaching of the vulnerable one horned Indian Rhinoceros the man who is saving the last of the incredibly rare Gesu golden monkeys a farmer in northeast India who has learned to coexist with the endangered Bengal tiger and much more curiosity stream is a subscription streaming service with a huge library of over 2000 documentaries nonfiction titles and exclusive originals they have a lot of really interesting nature documentaries which if you like animal logic I think you'll love to check out Asia secret lives hidden places and support animal logic go to curiosity stream calm lush animal logic and claim your 30-day free trial with the promo code animal logic what animal should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to for new episodes of animal logic every week if you want to help orangutan please support organizations like SOS Borneo which is helping to preserve and restore the orangutans natural habitat health and harmony is helping to train local farmers and sustainable agricultural practices and educate children about the importance of protecting the rainforests they're helping loggers build successful businesses that don't Center on deforestation and they're helping to provide economic independence for widows to learn more please follow the links in the description thanks for watching I [Music] thought it was tang all along orangutan orange ooo tan

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 1,101,475

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, orangutan, jungle, ape, great, borneo, sumatran

Id: 1Y4uCrG6Bo8

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018