Orangutans belong to the group of great apes, also made up of gorillas , bonobos and chimpanzees . All of them arouse a lot of interest, since they are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom and, the more we know them, the more we realize that they have many characteristics that have traditionally been attributed exclusively to the human species.
Experts estimate that we share 97% of our genes with orangutans, and various ethological studies show that the intelligence of our relatives is not negligible. Two very recent works, for example, show us that they have the ability to elaborate complex thoughts.
The first was carried out in captive conditions and was published in PLOS ONE in February 2019. Its results showed that these animals are capable of making flexible decisions and assessing the balance between effort and results when choosing how to act or which tool to use. in a setting with various options. This scenario consisted of transparent boxes that could contain apples or bananas and which could be accessed with different tools (a stick or a ball). The scientists observed that the orangutans were capable of making decisions to obtain the most palatable fruit after evaluating the effort they had to make with one or another tool.
They don’t just live the ‘here and now’
On the other hand, a study published at the end of 2018 in the journal Science Advances revealed that orangutans have a certain sense of the past and the future and are able to communicate with their young to show them these concepts. To do this, the scientists subjected a group of females who lived with their offspring in a Sumatra jungle to a stressful situation (a scientist disguised as a tiger) after which they were able to verify that the mothers communicated with their young to explain the facts and learn lessons for the future.
Unfortunately, orangutans are in danger of extinction and one of the great threats they suffer is deforestation, since they are species that spend most of their time in trees. But the tropical forests in which they live are being cut down for the use of wood, the extraction of minerals or for cultivation. In this way, orangutans are left without their main habitat and their populations are increasingly isolated. Poaching and illegal trade in species are also not good allies for the orangutan, and the capture of young for sale on the black market is still very common.
Such is the degree of threat of these apes that the last species described by scientists, the Tapanuli orangutan ( Pongo tapanuliensis) , has been described when there are only about 800 specimens left. Until the time of the discovery, in 2017, only two species of orangutan were known: the orangutans of Borneo ( Pongo pygmaeus ) and those of Sumatra ( Pongo abelii ).
To draw attention to the delicate status of these species, every August 19 is International Orangutan Day.
