It has been argued that the word comes specifically from the Banjarese variety of Malay, but the age of the Old Javanese sources mentioned above make Old Malay a more likely origin for the term. The word appeared in several German-language descriptions of Indonesian zoology in the 17th century. He reported that Malays had informed him the ape could talk, but preferred not to "lest he be compelled to labour". In Western sources, the first printed attestation of the word for the apes is in Dutch physician Jacobus Bontius' 1631 Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis. Hence the ultimate origin of the term "orangutan" as denoting the Pongo ape was most likely Old Malay. The word was not originally Javanese, but was borrowed from an early Malayic language at least a thousand years ago. In these Old Javanese sources, the word urangutan refers only to apes and not to forest-dwelling human beings. The earliest of these is the Kakawin Ramayana, a ninth-century or early tenth-century Javanese adaption of the Sanskrit Ramayana. The word orangutan appears in its older form urangutan, in a variety of premodern sources in the Old Javanese language. The locals originally used the name to refer to actual forest-dwelling human beings, but the word underwent a semantic extension to include apes of the Pongo genus at an early stage in the history of Malay. The name "orangutan" (also written orang-utan, orang utan, orangutang, and ourang-outang ) is derived from the Malay words orang, meaning "person", and hutan, meaning "forest". Several conservation and rehabilitation organisations are dedicated to the survival of orangutans in the wild. Threats to wild orangutan populations include poaching (for bushmeat and retaliation for consuming crops), habitat destruction and deforestation (for palm oil cultivation and logging), and the illegal pet trade. Human activities have caused severe declines in populations and ranges. Field studies of the apes were pioneered by primatologist Birutė Galdikas and they have been kept in captive facilities around the world since at least the early 19th century.Īll three orangutan species are considered critically endangered. Orangutans have been featured in literature and art since at least the 18th century, particularly in works that comment on human society. There may be distinctive cultures within populations. The apes' learning abilities have been studied extensively. They use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. Orangutans are among the most intelligent primates. They can live over 30 years, both in the wild and in captivity. Fruit is the most important component of an orangutan's diet but they will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and bird eggs. Orangutans are the most solitary of the great apes: social bonds occur primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring. Dominant adult males develop distinctive cheek pads or flanges and make long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals younger subordinate males do not and more resemble adult females. Adult males weigh about 75 kg (165 lb), while females reach about 37 kg (82 lb). They have proportionally long arms and short legs, and have reddish-brown hair covering their bodies. The most arboreal of the great apes, orangutans spend most of their time in trees. The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids ( gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans) between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago. tapanuliensis), was identified definitively in 2017. A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan ( P. pygmaeus, with three subspecies) and the Sumatran orangutan ( P. From 1996, they were divided into two species: the Bornean orangutan ( P. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. Lacépède, 1799 ( Simia satyrus Linnaeus, 1760)
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