Bornean Orangutan - Physical Description

Physical Description

The Bornean orangutan is the third-heaviest living primate after the two species of gorilla, and the largest truly arboreal (or tree-dwelling) animal alive today. Body weights broadly overlap with the considerably taller Homo sapiens, but that species, of course, is more variable in size. The Sumatran orangutan is similar in size, but is on average marginally lighter in weight. A survey of wild orangutans found that males weigh on average 75 kg (170 lb), ranging from 50–100 kg (110–220 lb), and 1.2–1.4 m (3.9–4.6 ft) long; females average 38.5 kg (85 lb), ranging from 30–50 kg (66–110 lb), and 1–1.2 m (3.3–3.9 ft) long. While in captivity, orangutans can grow considerably overweight, up to more than 165 kg (360 lb). The heaviest known male orangutan in captivity was an obese male named "Andy", who weighed 204 kg (450 lb) in 1959 when he was 13 years old.

The Bornean orangutan has a distinctive body shape with very long arms that may reach up to two metres in length. It has a coarse, shaggy, reddish coat and prehensile, grasping hands and feet.

Read more about this topic:  Bornean Orangutan

Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or description:

    It seems to me that physical sickness softens, just as moral sickness hardens, the heart.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)