Native only to the jungles of Sumatra and Borneo, the
orangutan is a rare and exotic creature. With a name meaning “forest person” in
the local tongue, our distant relative is truly a sight to behold.
Eerily human, extremely intelligent, and largely solitary,
the orangutan spends the first six years of its life with its mother. Much of
this time is spent learning how to build nightly nests high in the branches, as
well as the ins and outs of the diverse and complicated diet that gives these
critters sustenance – primarily a wide range of fruits, supplemented by plants,
honey, bark, and occasional bird eggs or insects.
Large, gangly-limbed, with frizzy red hair, orangutans still
somehow manage to exhibit grace and ease while swinging from tree to tree high
above the forest floor. No easy feat when you weigh up to 250 pounds.
It is a majestic and magical experience to witness such a
rare, solitary animal in its native habitat. Perched high in the safety of the
trees, the orangutans can be as interested in the people below as we are in it.
And with any luck, this interest, this intrigue, will fuel efforts to keep the
number of orangutans up, to keep the jungle from reducing in size, and to keep
the devastation humans can bring from encroaching farther into the realm of the
wild.
