Orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae. They split from humans, chimpanzees and gorillas 19. 3 to 15. 7 million years ago. Threats to wild orangutan populations include poaching, habitat destruction because of palm oil cultivation, and the illegal pet trade.
About Orangutan in brief
Orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae. They split from humans, chimpanzees and gorillas 19. 3 to 15. 7 million years ago. They are found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. The word was not originally Javanese, but was borrowed from an early Malayic language at least a thousand years ago and is now used to refer to apes of the Pongo genus. Threats to wild orangutan populations include poaching, habitat destruction because of palm oil cultivation, and the illegal pet trade. Several conservation and rehabilitation organisations are dedicated to the survival of orangutan in the wild. OrangutANS are among the most intelligent primates. They use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. The apes’ learning abilities have been studied extensively. There may be distinctive cultures within populations. All three species are considered critically endangered. Human activities have caused severe declines in populations and ranges. They can live over 30 years both in thewild and in captivity. The name is derived from the Malay words orang, meaning ‘person’ and hutan, meaning forest. The locals originally used the name to referring to actual forest-dwelling human beings, but the word underwent a semantic extension to include apes at an early stage in the history of Malay.
It has been argued that the word comes specifically from the Banse variety of Old Malay, but a more likely origin for the term for the apes is the Old Jvanese sources mentioned above. It was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orang-out, and has remained in use in many languages in many other languages since then. The most solitary of the great apes, social bonds occur primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who remain together for the first two years. They have proportionally long arms and short legs and their hair is reddish-brown. Adult males may develop distinctive cheek pads or flanges and make long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals; younger males do not and resemble adult females. The first printed attestation of the word for apes is in Dutch physician Jacobus Bontius’ 1631 Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis. : 539 Hence the ultimate origin of the term ‘orangutan’ as denoting the ‘Pongo ape’ was most likely Old Malayse. The word has also been used in several German-language descriptions of Indonesian zoology in the 17th century and 18th century. It has the word ‘areare’ which means ‘to talk’ or ‘not to be compelled to labour’. It is also used in a publication by Nicolaes Tulp, who was the first to use a term for apes that was misunderstood by his use of his work.
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This page is based on the article Orangutan published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
