Pongo abelii

Sumatran Orangutan

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

Genus: Pongo

Species: abelii

Taxonomy

Biome

Rainforests

Characteristics/Adaptations

Orangutans have very long arms (7 feet) that allow them to hang and swing on branches. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy so this is very important.
Orangutans also have fully opposable big and highly mobile hip. This is due to their tree canopy lifestyle.
Unlike other Great Apes who walk on their knuckles, Orangutans walk on their fists. Again, they don’t do much travel on the ground and their hands on designed to work the best in the trees.
A male Orangutan has cheek pads and a laryngeal throat punch. These are used, not only for intimidation other Orangutans, but also to help them with their “long calls.” These calls are used to warn off other males and to notify other Orangutans of their location. The cheek pads supposedly increase the distance these “long calls” travel.
Orangutans have flattened nails instead of sharp claws. This adaptation may have led to the development of sensitive tactile pads on the fingers. Also, like humans, Orangutans can control each finger individually. This makes their hands much more powerful and allows for precision grips in the tree canopy.

Oxygen & Carbon Dioxide Exchange

Orangutans breathe the same way humans do. They breathe oxygen through both their nose and mouth. The oxygen then enters the lung where it oxygenates the blood and it travels back to the heart. Carbon dioxide is carried back to the lungs where the orangutan can exhale it out. However, one difference is that orangutans have a larger skeleton and lungs. This means that it takes more oxygen to fill their oversized lungs.

Circulation and Excretion

Just like humans, orangutans have a four-chambered heart where the blood is circulated throughout the body. The circulatory system consists of pulmonary circulation (the lungs), coronary circulation (the heart), and systemic circulation (the rest of the body). The heart pumps oxygenated blood around the body until it comes back to the heart. The heart takes the blood and pumps it to the lungs where the carbon dioxide is exchanged with oxygen. The blood then returns to the heart where it is distributed throughout the body again.

Orangutans excrete waste much in the same way that humans do. The kidneys filter liquid waste from their blood and send it to the bladder where it is stored until it is excreted. The intestines absorb nutrient into the body and then move the remaining waste out of the body. In the lower intestine, the colon extracts salt and water before the solid waste is moved to the rectum. Then, the feces is eliminated from the orangutan’s body.

Nutrients

Orangutans are omnivores. However, most of their diet is composed of fruit and leaves while they consume birds and small mammals very rarely. They typically strip leaves from branches by dragging the branches through their mouths. To help absorb and neutralize secondary plant compounds that aren’t directly involved in growth, orangutans consume soil. They do this when they aren’t getting enough nutrients from their diet or in order to get minerals which offset problems (diarrhea) that are caused by the foods they consume. The digestive system of an orangutan is more similar to a carnivore than a herbivore. Therefore, they must consume large amounts of food daily because their stomachs are inefficient at processing plant matter.

Resources

guy_the_gorilla

Info: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/orangutan.htm

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2008/ahrens_just/adaptation.htm

http://www.orangutan-world.com/orangutan-feeding/

http://www.torontozoo.com/EducationAndCamps/Elementary/Self-guidedTourScripts/Grade%205-%20Animal%20Digestive%20Systems.pdf

http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-infobooks/orangutan/diet-and-eating-habits/

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/lung-and-airway-disorders/biology-of-the-lungs-and-airways/exchanging-oxygen-and-carbon-dioxide

http://wiki.hicksvilleschools.org/groups/hsbiology/wiki/5954f/Circulatory_System.html

http://yourselfseries.com/teens/topic/anatomy-101/your-excretory-system/

http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-infobooks/orangutan/senses/

Phylogenetic Tree: http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2008/ahrens_just/classification.htm

Reception and Response

An orangutan has the ability to see in 3D because of its binocular vision (forward facing eyes). This allows the organism to perceive distances and depth in their environment. This is very important because it must be able to judge how far a branch is away that it is swinging to. Their color vision helps them detect ripe fruits and vegetation to which they can feed on. The sense of smell is not as keen but is used to evaluate food and plays a role in reproduction. An orangutan’s hearing abilities is very similar to that of the human race. This Great Ape can hear in the same range as humans.

Orangutans use all of this sensory information to learn about their environment. They are very active learners that are very smart in their use of tools. They must also be able to swing among the trees in order to scavenge for the food that will give them all of the needed nutrients. Orangutans do not have a reflex that is activated when they feel threatened.

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