Orangutans are our close relatives. It’s easy to fall under the charming spell cast by the auburn hair and quizzical expression of a playful youngster — especially when the child in question is a baby orangutan. These apes, featured in the NATURE program Orangutans: Just Hangin’ On, stir our emotions easily. Whether it’s their alert eyes, grasping hands, or desire to be hugged, many things about them seem humanlike.
That’s not surprising when you think about how closely related we really are. The only primate closer to us is the African ape. But as human as they seem, orangutans are actually wild animals perfectly suited to their forest environment. Weighing in at a hefty 200 pounds, an adult male orangutan is four times as strong as an adult male human and the largest animal to dwell in trees. When climbing on vines, orangutans’ flexible hip joints and hand-like feet make them seem to have four arms rather than two arms and two legs.
The natural home of the orangutan is the leafy canopy of the Southeast Asian rainforests in Sumatra and Borneo, which are abundant with the fruit that these apes eat. The growth of the logging industry in these areas has placed this habitat in grave danger, so many zoos have begun programs to increase the worldwide orangutan population.
Whether they live in treetops or zoos, orangutans exhibit a high level of intelligence. Orangutans in the wild are capable of creating and using tools; those in captivity demonstrate their ability to think and solve problems, like the puzzles at Washington DC’s National Zoo, featured in rangutans: Just Hangin’ On. It is no accident that the Malay name for this animal, “orang utan,” translates as “man of the forest.”
Online content for Orangutans: Just Hangin’ On was originally posted December 1997.
Orang-utans would be so cool pets! They would cuddle you and scare off any burglars!
We think that orangutans are cool because they are stronger than a male human and are intelligent. You shouldn’t mess with and orangutan because it is four times stronger than a human. An interesting fact is that, all orangutans are very flexible in their hips and seem to have four arms. We are sad because orangutans are dying because loggers are cutting down their trees and homes. We also know that orangutans are being smuggled to zoos and private circuses.
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Orangatan Island is the best. Every morning on animal planet. Very educational. They so much like humans makes me wish ! I could have one as pet. As far as they home being cut down. We humans have destroyed that. Think about it like this. How would u like if someone knocked down ur place of living to build a mall ? Got my point ?
that is good info
this will be my report:-)
to Cabel.
Orangutans have such long arms because the live in the conopys in forests. The muscles required to swing around and hang onto limbs of trees could not be supported by short, less structured arms. That is why they have long arms. :)
Many Thanks for re-airing the Man of the Forest in June 2012. Least wise where I am in the desert of Arizona it was re-aired and what a great film. It is so sad that as the world homogenization continues, we not only have all the same culture we also are cutting all the forest that these great creatures and their cousins the Gorilla use and need.
I was amazed at how this conservatory has grown(in Pop) with unattended infant Orangutan’s. It is a fine effort and a very good film. Hope you air it again during the summer so more of the 7 billion hairless ones can see it.