Orang Utan Centre

Orangutan is one of human closest relatives in the animal kingdom, and most enigmatic cousins, sharing 96.4% of our DNA.

The Borneo and Sumatra are the world's only homes of the orang utan, whose survival has been threatened by land development, forest fires, poaching and illegal hunting. They could be virtually extinct within five years after it was discovered that the animal’s rainforest habitat is being destroyed even more rapidly than had been predicted. (October 2007)

Orangutans are unique in many respects. They are the only Great Ape in Southeast Asia, and indeed the only Great Ape found outside Africa

The population of orang-utans was reported to have fallen by 46 percent from 1992 to 1999 and even worst in recent years.

At the current rate of habitat destruction, orangutans could be extinct in the wild in ten to twenty years," said Cheryl Knott, an anthropologist at Harvard University.

They live mainly in the trees, & spend 99% of their live on tree, they only occasionally coming to the ground.

orangutan has been classified as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union. It is fully protected by law in Malaysia and is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which bans international trade in this species.

Orangutans are highly intelligent animals.  Their intelligence is comparable to a five or six years old child.  They show self-recognition when using mirrors and even recognize their own photograph.  The native intelligence of orangutans is used to solve problems related to arboreal travel and food processing.  In captivity, they can be trained to perform tricks and communicate with sign language and artificial communication systems to ask for items of interest, such as food and contact.  At present,  the intelligence of orangutans are still being explored.  Captivity orangutans are trained to perform tricks and simple gestures.They use tools in the wild and have excellent memories to make mental maps of their forest home in order to find fruiting trees throughout the seasons. Parent passing this knowledge on through generations. Sticks are used to probe for termites in termite mounds or to extricate seeds from the large Neesia fruit, which has stinging hairs.

The UN's environment programme report, 'The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: State of Emergency', says natural rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98 per cent may be destroyed by 2022, and the lowland forest strongholds of orang utans much sooner, unless urgent action is taken. This is a full decade earlier than the previous report estimated when it was published five years ago. Overall the loss of orang utan habitat is happening 30 per cent more rapidly than had previously been thought.

Please Join our Orang Utan Tour, Is time to see it now, or you will never. It will be extinct in a generation, Picture will be the only way for your son & grandson to see those animals in future. 

Orang utans eat vast quantities of fruits to survive. they are mainly vegetarian, Their main food is fruit (c.60%), young leaves (c.25%), flowers and bark (c.10%) insects, mainly ants, termites, and crickets (c.5%) and the occasional egg. Essentially they are vegetarian and do not eat meat or fish. The animal lives mostly on fruit, young leaves, bark, small vertebrates, bird eggs and insects.

The infant spends its first two to three years being carried constantly and will still remain close to the mother for at least another three years.

In the past twenty years 80 percent of orang-utan habitat has been lost to illegal logging, and conversion to permanent agriculture, in particular, palm oil plantations. Forest fires raged through much of Borneo in 1997 and 1998 and it is estimated that around one third of the island's orang-utan population was lost at this time.

Time is running out for the Asian ape however, and there are fears that at current rates of decline both the Sumatran and the Bornean orang-utan could be extinct in the wild by 2013.

Due to the large home ranges that these apes require it is the protection of habitat that will ensure that these beautiful and enigmatic 'people of the forest' survive into the next century

Sanctuaries & rehabitat centre wouldn’t stop them from extinct, there will still disappear from earth, Why?

The reproductive rate is very slow, possibly only once every 8 to 9 years in the wild.  Adult females may have only 3 to 4 offsprings during their reproductive lifetime. 

What is special about these animals is their unique vulnerability to exploitation. Much of this may be attributed to their extremely long inter birth interval, typically eight years, making them the slowest breeding primates on earth.

Orangutans breed more slowly than any other primate, with the females tend to only give birth after they reach 15 years of age & producing a baby on average only once every 7-8 years. Infants are dependent on their mothers for at least five years, learning about survival in the forest. Orangutans live for around 45 years in the wild, and a female will usually have no more than 3 offspring in her lifetime. This means that orangutan populations grow very slowly, and take a long time to recover from habitat disturbance and hunting.

Orangutans also differ from the other Great Apes in that they do not live in family groups. The largest family unit is a female and two offspring, and males and females usually meet up only to breed. This semi-solitary lifestyle is thought to have evolved due to the unpredictability of available food. Orangutans primarily eat fruit, and spend up to 60% of their time foraging and eating in order to get enough energy.

The reduction of habitat is forcing orangutan's populations is migrate into smaller areas which cannot support them. especially food sources.

How long can orangutans live?
In the wild an average lifespan is 45-50 years. They have been known to live longer - up to 65 years - in captivity.

What noise does an orangutan make?
They "squeak" to communicate. Infants cry like a baby, and young ones scream and throw tantrums. Adult male orangutans inflate their throat pouch to produce the 'long call' a deep resounding noise that sounds like "grumph" and is similar to a lion's roar. It can be heard for up to a kilometre in the forest.

The orang-utan knows how to put on a show when necessary and defends its territory with dramatic displays, loudly announcing its presence with a booming voice that can be heard several kilometers away.

Where do orangutans live?
Sumatra and Borneo (in Kalimantan, Sabah and Sarawak). These are the only places in the world where orangutans live. Orangutans live mainly in the trees, only occasionally coming to the ground.

How big are orangutans?
An infant weighs around half a kilogram at birth. Adult females can grow to around 1.3 metres in height and weigh around 45kg. Males can reach 1.8 metres in height and can weigh over 120kg.

Orang-utans have long arms (with a spread of up to 2.25 meters) and long narrow hands, and both their hands and feet have opposable thumbs.

Orang-utans have distinctive body shapes with very long arms that may stretch as far as two metres. They have a coarse, shaggy reddish coat and grasping hands and feet. Orang-utans are highly sexually dimorphic, with adult males being distinguished by their size, throat pouch and flanges either side of the face, known as cheek pads

How many babies are born at a time?
Usually only one infant. Only very rarely are twins born. Females are pregnant the same length of time as humans - nearly 9 months.

When does the infant leave its mother?
Orangutan infants stay with their mother until they are about 6 or 7 years old. They receive breast milk for the first 3 years of their life but also learn to eat other foods. The mother teaches them everything about survival in the forest and they have a very close relationship.

Are orangutans aggressive?
No, usually they are friendly, peaceful animals. They will only become aggressive to defend themselves. If an adult male meets another adult male, they will try to avoid a fight by giving threat displays and staring at each other. If this doesn't make one of them go away then they fight.

Are they dangerous?
They could be as they are up to 6 times stronger than humans, have 4 hands and can bite hard. Sometimes in captivity they become aggressive and dangerous usually as a result of how they are treated

Do orangutans have any predators?
Yes, but only a few: PRIMARILY MAN! Before, the clouded leopard and Sumatran tigers were their natural predatorsbut man has killed most of them off.

Why are they endangered?
Firstly, we are destroying their forests. Secondly, they reproduce very slowly. A female will only give birth every 6-7 years in the wild.

significant intelligence, with an ability to reason and think and is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same DNA as humans.