Sumatran Orangutan

November 21, 2024November 21, 2024

Orangutans climb incredibly high – no space for acrophobia

Borneon orangutan mother with her offspring – photo credit stockcake (Photo by <a href=”https://stockcake.com/i/orangutan-treetop-rest_758559_866654″>Stockcake</a>)

Life is hard in the Indonesian rainforest – compared to Africa and South America, there is very little to be found to eat (except in specific areas. As a result, orangutans become solitary, with the only time they are seen together is a mother with young, or a courting couple. Another problem, is demonstrated here – there is so little food to be had, that every food opportunity has to be realized. This has meant that orangutans have become the best climbers (followed by Chimpanzee and then Gorilla), as where ever the food is, it needs to be accessed.

It is true, that with tools, humans can become even better climbers (as can be seen from the image), which is taken from further up the tree than the orangutans have even climbed.

Primate family tree main and great and lesser apes

Primate family tree

The primates are in some ways one of the most successful families. It is true that many are now endangered, however, unfortunately, that is as a result of the run-away success of the most successful member of the primate family us! Having left the rainforests behind, we have been reducing their coverage dramatically over the last few centuries.

The sad thing, is that while we have pushed many of our closest cousins towards extinction, the loss of forests may well cost us dearly in the future as well. As a species, we need to pull together to meet this challenge. in order to jump to the various families, click on the family of interest above – though all can also be reached by scrolling down.

Great Apes

Eastern Lowland gorilla

Mountain Gorilla

Western lowland gorilla

Cross river gorilla

Great ape Family split is thought to have split from its nearest relative – the gibbon family, around 17 million years ago.

4 million years later the Orangutan family split from the gorilla line and the human/chimp line.

3 million years after this (so around 10 million years ago) the gorilla family split from the Homo (humans) and Pan

Finally the human line (homo) split from the Pan line 5-6 million years ago.

It should be noted, that chimpanzees and Bonobos split from a common ancestor just 1.8 million years ago. This occurred as the two populations ceased to be able to have contact with each other – the Congo rive formed between 1.5 and 2 million years ago.

For more information on each species, click on their photo and this will take you to their page

It should be noted that while I have grouped eastern western and skywalker gibbon together, there is some contention that the skywalker gibbon should be in its own genus, having diverged around half a million years aog

Gibbons

siamang gibbon genus Symphalangus

hookock gibbon (Eastern, Western and Skywalker) Genus Hoolock

genus Normascus (crested gibbon)

Genus Hylobates (dward gibbons) Agile gibbon

Genus Nomascus

This family is the Genus: Nomascus or crested gibbon.

Black crested gibbon

Eastern black crested gibbon

Hanain black crested gibbon

Northern buffed gibbon

Norhtern white cheeked gibbon

Southern white cheeked gibbon

Yellow cheeked gibbon

The last Genus of gibbons is Hylobates: dwarf gibbons.

Abbots (Western) grey gibbon

Agile gibbon

bornean white bearded gibbon

Eastern grey gibbon

kloss gibbon

lar gibbons male and female

Mullers grey gibbon

Pileated gibbon

Silvery gibbon

Orangutans are often animals high on the list that people wish to see one day. Orangutans are the only great ape that lives outside Africa.

While fossils show that at one time, it was found on the mainland of Asia, the Orangutan is now restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The Orangutan was first scientifically described in 1779 by Dutch anatomist Petrus Camper. This page is devoted to the Orangutans of Sumatra.

As with all great apes, the Orangutan is a keystone species and by saving its habitat, we save many thousands more as a by-product. The greatest threat has been palm oil plantations – while in theory these are created to reduce carbon emissions, it is questionable as to whether these plantations could ever be carbon negative. Building it on land that has to be cleared of rainforest, means that these palm oil plantations will have huge carbon footprints, which are likely to take over a century to pay off. As such it is not useful for climate change mitigation.
The orangutans of Sumatra are classed as critically endangered.

They are currently thought to number around 14,000. As always, we hope to add many destinations for Orangutans in the near future, do get in touch if you wish to list somewhere in their range. Below, any listings that might get added in the future, you will find all the articles we have written on Orangutans.

The Borneo and Sumatran Orangutans were only recognized as separate species in 1996

An arrested Sumatran politician – arrested for bribery, was found to have a pet Orangutan among a group of other exotic pets

Tim
March 4, 2022

There is a great deal of corruption in many parts of the world. In many places politicians are almost expected to give themselves extra benefits – indeed those who do not, are often quite notable for standing out. In this case, after arresting the politician his house was raided, when the animals were found.

Tim
November 21, 2024

Tim
May 2, 2023

It is just 5 years since the Tapanuli orangutan was described. Despite this Orangutan being restricted to an area of Northern Sumatra, it is more closely related to the Bornean Orangutan than the Sumatran one. This might be the clearest indication of how long this species has been separate from its cousins. The Tapanuli Orangutan …...

Tim
November 25, 2020

The leuser ecosystem on the island of Sumatra, is home to a fascinating range of animals, not found together anywhere else. In particular, this ecosystem supports tigers orangutans elephants and rhino. While these traps are sometimes set for trophy animals such as those above, they are more often set for smaller animals for bush meat. …...

Tim
August 21, 2020

I personally couldn’t see how an environmental check could make it through if the building of the dam, would completely eradicate one of the eight great apes on earth. However between the environmental challenges, the current ongoing pandemic and problems financing the project with many of the large world banks not keen to be associated …...

Tim
November 12, 2024

It would appear that chimpanzee medicine is quite a complicated field. This is a significant range of conditions that can be treated, though it should also be noted, that this knowledge is likely to be shared in the group, as no one individual will have seen their mother suffer from all these conditions. While gorilla …...

Tim
July 20, 2023

One of the problems with cutting down rainforest, it often what is left is so fragmented that it is useless for conservation. Remaining blocks of forest must allow a viable population of the rarest creatures, in order for the animals not to need to travel outside protected areas. In Borneo, like in Sumatra, there has …...

Tim
April 30, 2023

The wildlife of Indonesia now often looks like relatively unique to those islands. This is not the natural state of affairs. 60,000 years ago, a cousin of the orangutan lived on the mainland. Unfortunately, what appears clear, is that humans were responsible for the extinction of these animals as with so many more. There are …...

Tim
May 11, 2022

I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered – for those who read this website regularly, you will know that I talk about a wide range of species. The species that I am …...

Tim
January 11, 2022

This proposal would mean that Indonesia could cut down all its rainforest and replace them with Palm Oil, and would have engaged in zero deforestation. This has to be condemned globally, There are myriad problems with this. The destruction of the rainforest would release billions of tonnes of carbon into the air. Palm oil, will …...

Tim
August 15, 2020

It is unfortunately true that at the moment there is a great deal of effort by unscrupulous scientists that undermine well known facts.

Tim
March 8, 2020

Indonesia is pressing ahead with its desire to build a dam in the Sumatran rainforest. Now when the Dam is filled and floods this vast area of rainforest, all the carbon currently stored in the trees will be released back into the air- either as carbon or as meeting due to the breakdown of the …...

Species watch

All species are important, often reintroductions have failed because a small unnoticed animal was missed. Over time, we will amass pages for as many species as possible. However, just as important is seeing how species are closely related. As such as well as looking at species from a specific ecosystem or family, we will also include family trees of many of the families on earth. It should be noted, that this is to help you find wildlife you wish to see, so will never link to every species. In either way, these links to these will be placed at the top.

Bovini or cattle family tree

Equidae: Genus for horses (horses, donkeys and zebra)

Cervidae family (deer) here red deer

Camelid family (camels and Llamas)

Aardvark