Family Book Corner

A Brief Review About Orangutans

The orangutans are two species of great apes known for their intelligence, long arms and reddish-brown hair. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, though fossils have been found in Java, Vietnam and China. They are the only surviving species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae (which also includes the extinct genera Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus). Their name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan, meaning "man of the forest". The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia.

The total number of Bornean orangutans is estimated to be less than 14% of what it was in the recent past (from around 10,000 years ago until the middle of the twentieth century) and this sharp decline has occurred mostly over the past few decades due to human activities and development. Species distribution is now highly patchy throughout Borneo: it is apparently absent or uncommon in the south-east of the island, as well as in the forests between the Rejang River in central Sarawak and the Padas River in western Sabah (including the Sultanate of Brunei). A similar development have been observed for the Sumatran orangutans.

The most recent estimate for the Sumatran Orangutan is around 7,300 individuals in the wild while the Bornean Orangutan population is estimated at between 45,000 and 69,000. These estimates were obtained between 2000 and 2003. Since recent trends are steeply down in most places due to logging and burning, it is forecast that the current numbers are below these figures.

Orangutan habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires, as well as fragmentation by roads, has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. A major factor in that period of time has been the conversion of vast areas of tropical forest to oil palm plantations in response to international demand (the palm oil is used for cooking, cosmetics, mechanics, and more recently as source of biodiesel). Some UN scientists believe that these plantations could lead to the extinction of the species by the year 2012. Some of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development. There is also a major problem with hunting and illegal pet trade. In early 2004 about 100 individuals of Bornean origin were confiscated in Thailand and 50 of them were returned to Kalimantan in 2006. Several hundred Bornean orangutan orphans who were confiscated by local authorities have been entrusted to different orphanages in both Malaysia and Indonesia. They are in the process of being rehabilitated into the wild.

Major conservation centres in Indonesia include those at Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, Kutai in East Kalimantan, Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, and Bukit Lawang in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the border of Aceh and North Sumatra. In Malaysia, conservation areas include Semenggoh Wildlife Centre in Sarawak and Matang Wildlife Centre also in Sarawak, and the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary near Sandakan in Sabah.

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Books On Orangutans

The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligen...
by Eugene Linden
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: This is not a deep behavioral treatise about animal intelligence, but is nonetheless thought provoking. Which I like. The author examines a reasonably wide range of anecdotal incidents from around the world that, for the thoughtful reader, will elicit those deeper questions. After reading a chapter (or two) I always found myself rethinkng what I had read for some time before moving on. The author is careful to point out where he is editorializing or speculating about what some curious event may "mean", and remains fairly neutral in this regard. The easy going style of exposition favors the inquisitive reader and is always fun and enjoyable. This is simply "a good read" for just about anyone who shares a curiosity about the subject--whether a beginner or a bit more advanced. I recommend this book to everyone.

Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue
by Jon Agee
Amazon Price: $11.55
Customer Review: This cute book is full of creative tongue-twister poems and fun, colorful drawings. Contained in these poems are many well-known tongue twisters (such as "a noisy noise annoys an oyster," "unique New York" and "I saw Esau sitting on a seesaw"), which are expanded upon to create some very clever poems. The drawings are so fun and colorful.

We picked up this book at the library, and it ended up being a hit with the entire family! My 18-month-old son LOVES the fun pictures - he especially liked looking at all the monkeys. He even enjoyed having this book read to him.

My mother and grandmother both got a huge kick out of this book - my mom started reading it to my son, but when he left the room, she and my grandma were still up there reading and laughing aloud! My husband tried it out and couldn't help but read the entire book out loud, with no one else in the room.

It came at no surprise that this book was authored by Jon Agee, who wrote and illustrated one of my favorite books, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!: and Other Palindromes, an awesome and hilarious book on palindromes. He has done it again in Orangutan Tongs, and apparently has written a total of seven books on word-play - can't wait to check them all out!

Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo
by Birute M. F. Galdikas
Amazon Price: $17.99
Customer Review: I bought this book at a talk by Birute Gladikas at New Mexico State University. I had heard of her work in Borneo, but many of my co-workers did not know who she was, although they would have easily recognized the name of Jane Goodall, and possibly Dian Fossey, in part because Goodall has been more in the news and in part because of Fossey's unfortunate death. As Gladikas gave her talk, it was again impressed on me how heroic all three had been in their efforts to study and then protect the great apes they were assigned. While it has been said that Fossey got too involved with her gorillas, leading to her murder, one can easily understand her rage at human brutality toward her subjects. Both Goodall and Gladikas had to face similar challenges and managed to survive (although not always easily!) For her part, Gladikas has captured the difficulties and triumphs of her life in "Reflections of Edan: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo".

Certainly all three young women faced unbelievable challenges in studying great apes in the wild. Goodall and Fossey had to deal with the political instability in Central Africa at the time of their studies on chimpanzees and gorillas, and Fossey was especially pressed by poachers. To a large degree Gladikas had to deal with both, but she did so with remarkable finesse and diplomacy.

However, as Gladikas would say I'm sure, the real story is about the orangutans themselves. These creatures, which share 97% of ...

Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation
by Chad Arment
Amazon Price: $15.25
Customer Review: Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation by Chad Arment is a worthy attempt at defining the often slippery science of cryptozoology. The book is divided into roughly two halves, beginning with an in-depth explanation of what cryptozoology is and is not, and follows with real-world examples of its practice.

The first half of the book attempts to define, in no uncertain terms, the science that is cryptozoology. The author goes into rigorous detail here, first priming the reader with foundational chapters which address the topic from scientific, logical, and ethnozoological perspectives. This is also the most potentially difficult portion of the reading, if for no other reason than it's a characteristically dry treatment of scientific principles. If you can make it through the explanation of various forms of logical fallacy, and how scientific fact differs from theory and belief, the rest of the reading will be a breeze. That's not to say that the introductory material was superfluous or excessive. In fact, I agree entirely with the author's intent to provide a solid scientific foundation for his work. Ultimately, however, if you recall your school science course fundamentals well enough, you may find these few chapters a bit tedious.

The good new is, things soon pick up speed. The remainder of Part I ("Science") is spent addressing cryptozoology directly. What is it? What isn't it? How does a real cryptozoologist practice in the field? Why is i...

Organic Dairy Farming: A Resource for Farmers
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The Red Ape: Orangutans and Human Origins, Revised and Updated
by Jeffrey Schwartz
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Customer Review: It is odd to describe a book of science, especially a book which is in good part a polemic, as "charming". I do this because the author is so likeable, his writing is good, and he is a believer in the kind of close observation which has characterized the history of science. I tend to trust his impatience with so many of his fellow paleontologists.

The problem is that the DNA evidence supports the chimpanzee as man's closest cousin, and Schwartz just does not know enough to discuss the DNA evidence in any satisfactory way. "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins was copyrighted in 2004, a year before "The Red Ape". Dawkins discusses many of the difficulties in using DNA evidence, but there is no need to assume a priori who is related to whom, as Schwartz seems to say. Moreover, one can get some kind of probabilistic answer, so it would be nice to know whether DNA evidence assigns any significant chance of the orangutan being our closest cousin.


Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
by Luis Fernando Verissimo
Amazon Price: $10.36
Customer Review: This is a fun book that uses mirrors and deception to twist your mind around loads of history and literary references. Although it is short it packs quite a bit into 135 pages. I can't say this is an easy read but it is a completely enjoyable one. I wonder if a bit was lost in translation though.

The Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
Amazon Price: $0.99

Among Orangutans: Red Apes and the Rise of Human Culture
by Carel van Schaik
Amazon Price: $22.76
Customer Review: Homo sylvestris (man of the forest) is now placed cladistically at a farther remove from Homo sapiens than chimpanzees or gorillas, having been genetically isolated for 6 to 7 million years, and geographically isolated in two populations for perhaps 150,000 years. Author Carel van Schaik considers these two populations - on Sumatra and on Borneo - as distinct species, and concentrates on the fascinating life-styles of the Sumatran Pongo abelii. The text is based on patient and sometimes perilous field observation of the orangutans in the environment of swampy forest to which they are supremely adapted. Fossils are mentioned, but this is not a book of archaelogy. Thus it's enlivened by stunning photos of living pongids at home, climbing, eating, playing and seemingly having fun, and... using tools! building structures! activities only barely credited to chimps and previously assumed to be human-only behavior.

Is this a book about human evolution, as the subtitle suggests? Not really. Author van Schaik modestly and non-dogmatically suggests that the orangutans have a culture of learned behaviors which facilitates their survival, and that at some early moment of human evolution, "our" behaviors must have been similarly rudimentary yet remarkable. Is that suggestion even debatable? To me, it seems obviously so, though many details remain to be uncovered. At what stage of hominid evolution did such cultural behaviors appear? Van Schaik posits "convergent" evolution o...

Baby Orangutan (San Diego Zoo Animal Library)
by Julie D. Shively
Amazon Price: $6.95
Customer Review: These are the nicest kids books that I have seen on animals. They are intelligent, well written, cute and sturdy. The photos and illustrations are beautiful.