Orangutan an Endemic to Indonesia

Orangutan in Indonesian consists of two words, orang and utan. If translated, orang would mean person and utan taken from hutan would be forest. This makes orangutan have a meaning of a person from the forest. Orangutan is an endemic to Indonesia, just like how Koala is an endemic to Australia, Orangutan can only be found in Sumatra and in Borneo.

Here are some facts on orangutan from WWF:

-        Orangutan can live up to 45 years.

-        Orangutan and human have DNA similarities up to 97%.

-        There are two types of orangutan in the world, which is orangutan Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) and orangutan Sumatra (Pongo abelii).

-        Orangutan lives in tropical forests and swamps.

-        Orangutan consumes fruits and leaves, flowers, honey, insects, vines and plant buds.

-        Orangutan start to reproduce at the age of 7 to 10 years. Orangutan is an endangered animal and banned from being caught as well as banned from being traded because their numbers are getting smaller.

-        In their natural habitat, the number of orangutan in Borneo is around 23.000 and for orangutan Sumatra around 12.000.

The existence of orangutan benefits the ecosystem because they help spread out seeds throughout the forest. When they consume fruits, they would throw the seeds away. If it falls on fertile soil, the seed would later grow into a tree. Not only that, orangutan can be said to take part in growing saplings. Branches they break off to make their nests and leaves they take to eat would allow light to reach the ground, helping the saplings receive light and grow.

However, the area of forests are decreasing and becoming more ruined. There are cases of illegal logging, land made into plantation as well as mining, and so on. Moreover, there are poachers lurking around. Orangutan would be caught and made into a pet. Where an orangutan disease can be transmitted to a human, seeing that there is a 97% similarity in the DNA.

Reference:

https://www.wwf.or.id/cara_anda_membantu/bertindak_sekarang_juga/sahabat_orangutan/