Have you ever wished you could live in a treehouse? Though orangutans don’t have houses, they spend almost all of their time up in the trees. They have opposable thumbs and big toes, so they are able to grasp branches with both their hands and their feet. They can have an arm span of over seven feet, and their arms are about one and one half times as long as their legs. These long, strong arms make them awesome swingers and climbers. In fact unless they can’t go tree to tree by branches, orangutans will rarely go down to the ground.

Everything orangutans need is in the trees. Their favorite food is fruit, especially figs, and they seem to know what fruit is ripe in what part of the forest at what time. They will occasionally eat insects or small mammals, but tend to be mostly herbivores. They drink rainwater collected on leaves and in the holes of trees. Orangutans even sleep in the trees. They build a new platform nest from leaves and branches each night and sleep 40 to 60 feet off of the ground!

Orangutans tend to be more solitary than other apes. Orangutan offspring will stay with their mothers several years until they have learned where to find food, how to build nests and other survival techniques. Until they are fully mature in their early to mid-teens, they may stay in small groups with other juveniles. At age fifteen, male orangutans start to develop their wide cheek pads, which female orangutans find attractive in a mate. Males also have a throat sac that allows them to make a deep bellow, called a “long call,” that can be heard over a half mile away. This call establishes a male’s territory and is an invitation to females.

Orangutans live only on islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Unfortunately they are now endangered because of logging and agriculture. In addition poachers often kill mother orangutans and take their babies to sell in the pet trade.