Orang-UTan

The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.
~Barry Commoner~ ~1917~

Sepilok,Sandakan
ORANG-UTAN

The islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Java, together with the Malay Peninsula stand on a shallow submarine continental extension called 'The Sunda Shelf'. These islands are inhabited by faunas which have much in common, but that of Borneo is distinctive, with about 40 mammals that are endemic; i.e. they exist nowhere else in the world. The island of Borneo is in the Malay Archipelago, southeast of the Malay Peninsula and southwest of the Philippine Islands. The population is 10,184,443 (1984 est.).
It is divided into four political regions: Kalimantan, the largest, is Indonesian; SABAH (North Borneo) and SARAWAK are part of Malaysia; and tiny BRUNEI, formerly a British protectorate, gained independence in 1984.
Borneo, with a length of 1,336 km (830 mi) and a maximum width of about 965 km (600 mi), is the third largest island in the world and lies across the equator in Southeast Asia. Its area is more than 743,107sq km (286,914 sq mi).

Borneo is mountainous and thick with rain forest. In the northeast, the mountains reach their greatest height; among these, Mount Kinabalu rises 4,101 m (13,455 ft). A long ridge of mountains also covers the central part of Borneo.
The natural habitats of almost all the wild land mammals are found here. It is a shame to see most of these forests disappear to give way to man-made concrete jungles and plantations.

A poem I wrote in 1978 :-
A modern world of urbanization
created jungles of concrete contortion.
Impersonal people infest these places,
a sea of nothing but indifferent faces.
People never have time to say,
"Hello, good morning, how are you today?"
Factories, mills, industrialization
created skylines of smoke pollution.
Cancerous air that seem no harm
slowly killing mother nature's charm.
Vanishing species that cry out in sorrow
"Save us for children of tomorrow."

Automobiles and transportation
created junkyards of iron defecation.
Empty shells that once had utility
rusty reflections of man's futility.
Struggling now to earn his bread,
but who remembers when he's dead?

The conservation of wild life is of utmost importance.
There are two types of conservation:
(a)the preservation of of the natural environment
(b)the legal protection of animals

In Malaysia, the Protection of Wildlife Act 1973 gives protection to many species of mammals and licences issued by the Game Department are necessary even for common species. 78% of Malaysia's mammals are confined to primary and tall secondary forests and 81% are restricted to areas below 600 metres. This means that the lowland forests are crucial for the continued survival of most Malaysian mammals. Their continued existence depends on the preservation of these areas.

The last of the great apes found outside Africa is the tree-dwelling ORANG-UTAN, one of the world's most extraordinary animal. It is a fascinating but unfortunately an endangered creature of the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo, it has roughly the bulk of a man.

Man and ape have been in conflict for years and the future conservation of orang-utans is definitely of international concern. Rehabilitation centres have been set up at Ketambe in Sumatara and at Sepilok in Sandakan, Sabah, where illegally domesticated orang-utans are confiscated from their owners and only after successful rehabilitation are released into the wild. Their ability to lead an independent life in the wild is largely a matter of education imparted by the mother, so a tame one without rehabilitation, released and abandoned in the jungle will soon die.

Orang-utans are PRIMATES

FAMILY: Pongidae

GENUS: Pongo

SPECIES: pygmaeus

SUB-SPECIES: pygmaeus (from Borneo)
SUB-SPECIES: abelli (from Sumatara)

MALAYSIAN NAME: The name ORANG-UTAN is derived from the Malay language meaning 'man of the forest' The actual Malay name is 'Mawas'

SIZE: Height/Male: 1.5m (4.9ft)
Height/Female: 1m (3.3ft)
Weight/Male: 75 kgs(165lbs)
Weight/Female: 40 kgs(88lbs)
Weight at birth: 1.5 kgs(3lbs)

COLORATION: Reddish-brown coats but ranges from bright orange in young to dark brown in some adults. Adults have black faces;young have pink muzzles and pink skin around their eyes.

BIRTH TO DEATH: Breeding - Non Seasonal
Gestation : 8-9 months
Usual number of young : 1
Number of young in lifetime : 3-4
First solid food : 3 months
Weaning : 2 years
Independant : 7 -10 years
Sexual Maturity : 6-8 years
Fully grown : 6-7 years (females) 10-14 years (males)
Lifespan : 30-40 years

FEATURES: Very long armspan : 1.5 - 2.5m(4.9ft-8ft)
Large brains for their size; highly intelligent
Heaviest tree dwelling mammal

DIET: Orang-utans live among the trees but are too heavy to perform the acrobatics and antics of monkeys and lighter apes. 60% of their diet consists of tropical fruits, such as mangoes, lychees, durians, figs, etc.. In fact, they eat more than 300 different types of food, including leaves, barks, ants, termites, fungi, honey, bird eggs and handfuls of soil. They have voracious appetites.They can use a leaf as a means to quenching their thirst.

BEHAVIOUR: The orang-utan is the most introverted and antisocial of the great apes. Orang-utans are solitary animals, spending most of ther lives on their own. Even if a group assembles in a well-stocked fruit tree, they take very little notice of each other. Only the young seem to enjoy playing with each other and indulging in mock fights. The male orang-utans seek the company of the females only when they want to mate. They play no part in the upbringing of the young ones or in their family life.
Despite their solitary lifestyles, orang-utans are highly intelligent, resourceful animals, capable of amazing feats of memory and learning. In the wild, they can remember with accuracy the exact locations and fruiting seasons of a whole range of trees.
An orang-utans day consists of searching and eating food. They spend most of their time in the lower to middle branches of the trees. At night, they build large leafy nests in the trees, some 10m (33ft) above the ground. A new nest is built every night by bending over branches into a firm base and tucking in smaller twigs to make a springy mattress. They sleep on their backs or sides, sometimes with a hand under their head.

Orang-utans have no known enemies apart from man ! Today there are less than 30,000 orang utans left in the world.....although protected by law, it is still under threat from human activities - the most dangerous being the destruction of the orang-utan's forest habitat and the illegal pet trade which continues despite the efforts of both conservation groups and the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to stamp it out ! Captive orang-utans command high prices, not so much as pets but for zoos and experimental animals.

SAVE OUR ORANG-UTANS !