Bornean orangutan

보르네오오랑우탄

Its name means "person of the forest" in Malay, and its arms can span over two metres. It spends nearly all its time in trees, eats mostly fruit, and builds a fresh sleeping nest of branches almost every evening.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Class: Mammals
Lives in: Tanjung Puting, Borneo, Indonesia
Diet: Eats both plants and meat (omnivore)
Weight: about 57 kg
Length: about 1.25 m
Lifespan: up to about 60 years
Conservation status: Critically Endangered (IUCN CR)
Habitat: rainforests

Quick answers

Where does the Bornean orangutan live?

It lives in rainforests. On the globe you can find it near Tanjung Puting, Borneo, Indonesia.

How big is the Bornean orangutan?

It grows to about 1.25 m and 57 kg.

What does the Bornean orangutan eat?

Its diet: eats both plants and meat (omnivore).

How long does the Bornean orangutan live?

It can live up to about 60 years.

Is the Bornean orangutan endangered?

It is listed as Critically Endangered (IUCN CR).

The Bornean orangutan is a large red-haired great ape that lives only on the island of Borneo in South-East Asia, which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Its name comes from Malay words meaning "person of the forest". It is the largest of the three orangutan species and the biggest ape that truly lives in the trees, with arms up to 1.5 metres long each.

Orangutans are very clever. They use tools, learn skills from their mothers and even have habits that differ from one group to another, a little like cultures. Sadly, the Bornean orangutan is Critically Endangered: forests are being cut down for logging and palm oil plantations, and its numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades.

Where it lives

Bornean orangutans live in the lowland and mountain rainforests of Borneo, up to about 1,500 metres above sea level, including peat swamp forests. They spend most of their lives high in the treetops, swinging and climbing from branch to branch, and travel long distances to find trees with ripe fruit. Every day they build a nest of bent and woven branches to sleep in, sometimes adding a leafy roof, a "pillow" or a "blanket".

What it eats

Fruit is the favourite food, especially wild figs and durians, but a Bornean orangutan eats more than 400 kinds of food. These include leaves, seeds, flowers, bark, sap, honey, mushrooms, insects and bird eggs. It gets most of its water from fruit and from rain collected in tree holes. Now and then it eats a little soil, which may help settle its stomach after eating plants with bitter chemicals.

Family life

Orangutans are the most solitary of the great apes, and adult males usually live alone. Big males grow wide cheek pads, called flanges, and a large throat pouch, and give loud "long calls" that can be heard about 2 kilometres away. A baby clings to its mother's belly for its first year and stays with her for six or seven years while it learns which foods to eat and how to build nests. Mothers have a baby only about once every eight years, one of the longest gaps of any animal.

Fun facts

Its name comes from Malay words meaning 'person of the forest'.
A male orangutan's arm span can reach about 2 metres, much longer than he is tall.
Orangutans have been seen holding big leaves over their heads as umbrellas in the rain.
A Bornean orangutan can eat more than 400 different kinds of food.
Bornean orangutans walk on the ground more often than Sumatran orangutans, perhaps because there are no tigers on Borneo.

On the globe

The orangutan sits in the rainforest of Tanjung Puting on Borneo, Indonesia. Zoom in to look for its long arms and shaggy reddish coat among the trees.