A species
Bornean orangutan
Pongo pygmaeus
A red-haired forest cousin that builds a new treetop bed almost every night.
You and the bornean orangutan last shared an ancestor about 16 million years ago (on 30 December, if life's history were one year).
Compare with something elseThe Malay name orangutan means person of the forest, and these shaggy red apes are some of your distant cousins. They are great apes, like gorillas, chimpanzees and humans, but the only ones that live wild in Asia. Almost every night they build a fresh bed high in the treetops, weaving branches and leaves into a soft mattress, sometimes with a pillow or a roof.
Orangutans are the largest mammals that live mostly in trees, spending about nine-tenths of their time up there. Their very long arms reach almost to their ankles, and they climb cautiously and swing hand over hand through the forest. On the ground they are slow and awkward, walking on their clenched fists. Like other apes, they have no tails you can see.
Wild Bornean orangutans live only on the island of Borneo, mostly in lowland tropical rainforest. They eat mostly fruit and leaves, with some bark and insects and, very rarely, meat. Grown males are much bigger than females, with beards, and can weigh about as much as a grown man. Some grown males also grow wide cheek pads.
The slowest mums
Mothers give birth only about once every eight years, one of the longest waits of any mammal. Babies stay with their mum for about six to seven years.
Leaf umbrellas
In the rain, they use big leaves as umbrellas and shelters.
Calls that carry far
Males with cheek pads make a long call that carries about 2 kilometres through the forest. That is about as far as twenty soccer fields laid end to end.