Bornean orangutan

Appearance

It has grey skin, a coarse, shaggy, reddish coat and prehensile, grasping hands and feet. Its coat does not cover its face unlike most mammals, although Bornean orangutans do have some hair on their faces among them a beard and mustache. It is highly intelligent, displaying tool use and distinct cultural patterns.

The heaviest known male orangutan in captivity was an obese male named "Andy", who weighed 204 kg (450 lb) in 1959 when he was 13 years old.

Body weights broadly overlap with the considerably taller Homo sapiens, but the latter is considerably more variable in size. By comparison, the Sumatran orangutan is similar in size but, on average, is marginally lighter in weight.

Published measurements include mass about 1.73.

Range and habitat

The Bornean orangutan occurs in the two Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and four of the five Indonesian Provinces of Kalimantan, while its presence in Brunei is uncertain and unconfirmed. Due to habitat destruction, its distribution is patchy throughout the island, and it has become rare in the southeast of Borneo and in the forest between the Rajang River in central Sarawak and the Padas River in western Sabah It lives in the Borneo lowland rain forests and in the Borneo montane rain forests in mountainous areas up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft). It inhabits the canopy of old-growth and secondary forests, and moves large distances to find fruit-bearing trees. In early October 2014, researchers found about 50 orangutans in several groups in South Kalimantan Province, although previously there is no record that the province has orangutans.

The Bornean orangutan is an orangutan species endemic to the island of Borneo. Species distribution is now highly patchy throughout Borneo. It is apparently absent or uncommon in the southeast of the island, as well as in the forest between the Rajang River in central Sarawak and the Padas River in western Sabah (among them the Sultanate of Brunei).

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

Bornean orangutan are more solitary than their Sumatran relatives. Although orangutans are not territorial, adult males will display threatening behaviors upon meeting other males, and only socialize with females to mate.

Males are considered the most solitary of the orangutans. The Bornean orangutan exhibits nest-building behavior.

In crisis

It is listed as Critically Endangered, with deforestation, palm oil plantations, and hunting posing a serious threat to its survival. The Bornean orangutan is more common than the Sumatran, with about 104,700 individuals in the wild, whereas just under 14,000 Sumatran orangutans are left in the wild. Orangutans are becoming increasingly endangered due to habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade, and young orangutans are captured to be sold as pets, usually entailing the killing of their mothers.

The Bornean orangutan is critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List of mammals, and is listed on Appendix I of CITES. A population of around 6,900 is found in Sabangau National Park, but this environment is at risk.

Bornean orangutan is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Bornean orangutan, Wikidata item Q599672. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.