The most difficult orang­utans riddles

Orangutans live on only two islands, Borneo and northern Sumatra. They are a relic species. At the end of the Pleistocene period some 12,000 years ago, their range was much wider, encompassing southern China, Indochina, Java and southern Sumatra. The species is now extinct in all these regions.

Adult male orangutans, reaching a weight of 140 kg or more, spend nearly all their time in the forest canopy where they feed, sleep, breed and raise their young. The females even give birth in a treetop nest.

Orangutans are orange, but the name "orangutan" is not derived from the color. The name "orangutan" comes from the Malay words orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest". In 1631, naturalist Jacobus Bontius described that Malaysians considered these apes as wild humans. They had informed him the ape was able to talk, but preferred not to "lest he be compelled to labour".