Astounding Facts About Primates that Never Cease to Amaze

3. Orangutans are a kind of ape.
Apes are large primates with no tail and generally have flat faces without a prominent snout. As you might guess, great apes are the largest kind of apes and include gorillas and orangutans. Gorillas can grow to over five feet tall and weigh nearly 500 pounds, and orangutans are not far behind. They are the largest primate that lives in the trees, and they can get to around 4.5 feet tall and weigh as much as 200 pounds. Their massively long arms can stretch as much as seven feet across! Their bodies are built so that they can stretch across long distances and eat with their feet.

Like other primates, orangutans are incredibly social and live in groups known as shrewdness. They have very long birth intervals of about seven to nine years due to how long mothers care for their young. Baby orangutans learn everything from their moms, including what foods to eat and how to swing from the trees. Until they reach those critical learning milestones, they ride around on mom’s back and eat what she feeds them. Males become fully mature around age 35 when they develop distinctive fatty flaps on their faces. They have been known to live upwards of 50 years in the wild, but they are severely endangered and face the genuine risk of extinction.