Evolution

Characteristics specific to the Primate family taxa are opposable thumbs, larger brains (in relation to body size), and few offspring-usually one at a time. Orangutans stay with their mother until about eight years old. The mothers teach their offspring as much as they can about their territory, what food to eat, and even how to use tools to infiltrate bee hives for delicious honey or ant piles for a healthy snack. In the Pongo genus taxa, the body hair is auburn. The arms are significantly longer than other clades, enabling them to live mostly in treetops, rarely treading the ground. The Pongo pygmaeus species have darker red hair and rounder faces than their sister taxa, the Sumatran Orangutan, Pongo abelii. In the right-hand picture, a Sumatran Orangutan exhibits the bright orange fur in contrast to our Bornean mother Orangutan and her baby in the left image.