Top 10 facts about orangutans

There are 60,000 orangutans in the world

SINCE Monday, this has been Orangutan Awareness Week, under the auspices of the Orangutan Foundation (www.orangutan.org.uk).

 

1. Orangutans come in two species: the Borneo orangutan (or Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatra orangutan (Pongo abelii).

2. Sumatran orangutans have a narrower face and longer beard than their Bornean cousins

3. Between the two species, there are only around 60,000 orangutans left in the world.

4. They sleep in nests in trees, eat fruit and rarely descend to ground level.

5. In Malay, orangutan means 'man of the forest'. The word was first seen in English in 1699.

6. Orangutans are the least social of all primates. Females spend up to 25 per cent of their time with other orangutans. Males less than 9 per cent.

7. After mating, a female abandons her mate. The male has no role in caring for the young.

8. Orangutans not only have opposable thumbs like humans but also have opposable big toes.

9. Around a third of all orangutans do not have nails on their big toes.

10. When Charles Darwin visited London Zoo in March 1838, he entered the cage of an orangutan named Jenny who, he said, "was particularly fond of watching boys bathe".