Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Jungle Man From Indonesia

In this world, there are four great apes species; gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only orang utans are from Indonesia, Asia. The others are from Africa. Live at the rainforest of Indonesia, orangutans known with two species, Borneo and Sumatra. Both of them are the last surviving of Pongo Genus and the subfamily Ponginae (including the extinct Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus).

Sivapithecus known as the ancestors of modern orangutans, but some hypothesis says it originated from Lufengpithecus. Both of these ancestors were live about more than 300 thousand years ago and now extinct.


Whose ever the orangutans are, these species are unique. When one thinks of an orangutan what usually comes to mind is the uniquely wonderful rusty-orange hair, some said bright reddish, that covers their bodies and their arms. In general its coat which is sparse, long and coarse, will range anywhere from bright orange in youngsters to a chocolate mahogany in some adults. Orangutan also known as arboreal (primarily tree dwelling), while other apes are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the ground).

The Sumatran species has a thinner, paler coat than that of the Bornean. It is the largest tree dwelling mammal in the world; males at 220 pounds and standing 5 feet tall are twice the size of females.

Their legs are about 30% shorter than their long arms which can grow, up to 6.6ft. (2m). They use both legs and arms to move from tree to tree in the forest canopy, swinging and moving elegantly. Makes them graceful and swift while swinging through the trees but it makes walking on the ground very slow and awkward. That is why the orangutan is at a great disadvantage on the ground, and why the orangutan rarely comes down from the treetops. Their feet are designed like hands and their both hands and feet are long, narrow and strong and used in a hook like fashion when grasping branches. The thumb is fully opposable.

The etymology said that the words orangutan derived from Indonesian Malay language. Orang mean Man, utan for Hutan mean forest or jungle, thus “the people of forest”.

Let me say that orangutan is the jungle man, and let the jungle man traveling the great forest of Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra forever.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

we must save this rare apes. it is for the good reason

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