Orangutan

The word orangutan means "man of the forest" in the Malay language. The number of orangutan is decreasing, they are endangered mostly because of the deforestation.

Living place : Orangutans are the only great ape who live in Asia. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia and live in tropical rain forests in the island of Sumatra and Borneo. Orangutans are the most arboreal of great apes, they spend nearly all of their time in trees.

Physical description : They have long and strong arms, twice as long as their legs, and swing from branch to branch with them. An adult male weights 50 - 90kg and grows to about 1,2 - 1,5 m ; an adult female weights 30 - 40 kg and stands aroud 1,1 m.
Orangutans are covered by long reddish-brown hair and they have a large head.

Behaviour : Orangutans are solitary animals. They live alone in large territories and communicate by screaming loudly.

Life span and reproduction : The life span of Orangutans is about 50 years in captivity but in the wild, the life span is only about 30 - 45 years. Orangutans, like humans, don't have a specific season for the reproduction. They are able to reproduce when they are 7 to 10 years old. Females are pregnant for 8.5 to 9 months and give birth to a single baby. The male and female orangutan stay together for only a few days.

Diet : Orangutans are omnivores but mostly herbivorous. Their favorite food are fruits, who represent 65% of their diet. They also eat insects, small animals, flowers, leaves ...

More informations : They are known for their intelligence and for using found objects as tools.

Bonobo

Living place: Around 10 000 Bonobos are only found around the Congo river, in the democratic republic of the Congo, living in the humid forests.

Physical description: Bonobo male weighs 40kg and stands around 85 cm. Bonobo female weighs 30 kg and average 78 cm.

Diet: Fruit is central to the diets. But Bonobo also eats nuts, seeds, young leaves, and insects.

Lifespan and reproduction: Female are able to give birth by age 11 or 12 and male turns sexually mature at 15 years old. The gestation period lasts 228 days and the female has one child.

Longevity: Bonobo lives older than 40 years in the wild and close to 60 in captivity.

Group life: Bonobo lives in troops of 20 to 50 animals. They aren't agressiv one another unlike chimpanzees. Bonobo 's group is seen as an egalitarian society in which males do not automatically outrank females in the group. On the contrary, their life is based on a matriarcal system in which male keeps staying with their mother during his entire life, and the female has to join another group when she reachs puberty.Sex is a social motor in group life, by easing tensions and creating alliances.

More informations: Bonobo is the smalest Great Apes. Humans and Bonobos share between 99 and 99.6% of their genetic makeup.

source: http://pen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo - 113k