Orangutan
Have you ever seen that strange looking creature with a flat large face and an old man's gaze?. Magnificent isn't it?. Of course it is. The creature which is native to Indonesia and Malaysia is a great ape, the Orangutan is the most arboreal of all the great apes in the world (great apes e.g Gorillas), usually seen at the high levels on trees.
Appearance
The Orangutan is a large ape, males weigh about 75kg and females weigh about 37kg. They are covered in long reddish brown fur with prominent long arms due to their arboreal lifestyle and short legs. The dominant/alpha males have large flat broad cheek pads on their face that extend outwards, and throat pouches which aids them in making loud calls to attract their mates.
Life of the Orangutan
This big boys are very solitary animals, living alone unless they want to mate or when a mother is raising her young. They are omnivores spending their day eating mainly fruits, insects, honey and bird eggs. Sleeping and traveling in search of other sources of food within their home range is a part of their daily lives.
Orangutan females and males become sexually mature at 15 years of age which is well half of their entire lives. The males don't develop their cheek pads and other dominant features just yet until there's no dominant males around (the mating calls of dominant males actually suppress development in the younger ones). These undeveloped males usually force mating on females in oestrus so they can produce offspring, whereas females that are not in oestrus usually don't resist this males because the chances of pregnancy are low due to the underdevelopment of these males. The gestation period of Orangutans is similar to ours (9 months), with about 6 years interval in between births, twins are a rare occasion here. The infants are totally dependant on their moms for the first two years but remain with them until about 8 years of age.
Orangutans are very intelligent creatures and are masters of the mirror which means they are very good at mimicking behaviors, especially human behavior. They use tools quite well, for hunting insects and also have a technical know-how on nest building knowing fully well the materials which best support their body weight.
Extinction
Due to exotic pet trades and destruction of natural habitat, Orangutans have been listed as critically endangered species. Most of them are found in conservation centres in Asia and other parts of the world, we should aid in this race to save the old man of the forest.
They have also been laws passed to free the great apes from any human experimental trial, a practice which was very common before these recent times.
Pray for the Orangutan, don't engage in illegal pet trade, replace felled trees, practice pro green lifestyles. Thank you.
Disclaimer
Pictures were solely gotten from Pinterest. And the knowledge of this work from my reseaches.