Dean M. Chriss
Photography
Angry Orangutan Male, Borneo
(Click image to enlarge)
Like baby humans, baby orangutans cry when hungry, whimper when hurt, and smile
at their mothers. Adult orangutans also express emotions like surprise, joy,
fear, and anger just as humans do. It is easy to interpret the expression on
this orangutan's face. It is a threatening gesture meant to intimidate, and it
is effective. Males and females sometimes exhibit an open-mouth threatening gesture to tell others
to stay out of their personal space. The gestures are mostly for the purpose of
intimidation. The females seldom engage in any violent behavior and mutually
avoid one another. Dominant males sometimes engage in combat that can last
for an hour or more. Nearly all of them exhibit injuries like missing or stiff fingers or toes, scars on faces or heads, and
missing eyes as a result.
Orangutans are extremely smart. In the wild they are often seen using found
objects as tools. They are seen using leaves as toilet paper,
leafy branches as flyswatters, and large leaves for umbrellas. They also manufacture tools by modifying sticks for
collection of insects and to pry open large fruit and seed pods. Layers of
leaves are used to hold spiny fruit as they open it. Orangutan genomes are 97 percent identical
to those of humans, and 99 percent identical to chimpanzees.
The creation of palm oil plantations on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra
have killed more than 50,000 orangutans. Orangutans whose habitats have been
destroyed often enter villages and oil plantations in search of food where
they are captured or killed by farmers who treat them as pests. The illegal
pet trade also kills countless orangutans each year. Babies can be captured
only by
killing their extremely protective mothers. Orangutans are likely to become
extinct in the wild within the next ten years.