Featured Animal: Bornean Orang-utan

The Bornean orang-utan is a species of orang-utan native to the island of Borneo. The Bornean orang-utan is one of only two species of ape that are found in Asia, the other being the slightly smaller and closely related, Sumatran orang-utan.

The Bornean orang-utan is found inhabiting tropical and sub-tropical rainforest in the lowlands of Borneo and can also be found grazing at elevations of up to 1500 m. The Bornean orang-utan makes full use of it's surroundings dwelling both on the ground and at different heights in the trees.

There are considered to be three different sub-species of the Bornean orang-utan, which although similar in appearance, are differentiated by the areas of the island that they occupy. The three Bornean orang-utan sub-species are the Northwest Bornean orang-utan, the Central Bornean orang-utan and the Northeast Bornean orang-utan.

The Bornean orang-utan is generally a more solitary animal that the Sumatran orang-utan with male and female Bornean orang-utans only really coming together to mate. As with the other great apes, the Bornean orang-utan has a number of features which makes living in the jungle a bit easier, including having opposable thumbs which come in handy when the Bornean orang-utan is peeling fruit.

The Bornean orang-utan is an omnivorous animal, but the majority of it's diet is made of fruit which the Bornean orang-utan is known to travel vast distances through the forests to find. The Bornean orang-utan also eats leaves, nuts and berries, along with insects and occasionally small animals such as lizards and rodents.

Due to it's large size, the Bornean orang-utan has no real predators on it's native island of Borneo. The biggest threat to the Bornean orang-utan is habitat loss caused by deforestation which has completely wiped out the Bornean orang-utan populations in certain areas.

The different Bornean orang-utan sexes only really come together to mate, and once born, the Bornean orang-utan baby is looked after by it's mother. The Bornean orang-utan baby clings to it's mum for the first year of it's life and may remain with her until it is nearly 10 years old. Bornean orang-utans have a relatively long childhood when compared to that of the other great apes.

Today, the Bornean orang-utan is one of the world's endangered species with less than 45,000 Bornean orang-utan individuals thought to be left in the wild. The main reason for the demise in the Bornean orang-utan populations is deforestation across the island for logging and to make way for palm oil plantations.