Humans' colonization of diverse habitats relied on our ancestors' abilities to innovate and share innovations with others. While ecological impacts on innovations are well studied, their effect on social learning remains poorly understood. We examined how food availability affects social learning in migrant orangutan unflanged males, who may learn from local orangutans through peering (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn many slowly developing mammal species, males reach sexual maturity well before they develop secondary sexual characteristics. Sexually mature male orangutans have exceptionally long periods of developmental arrest. The two male morphs have been associated with behavioral alternative reproductive tactics, but this interpretation is based on cross-sectional analyses predominantly of Northwest Sumatran populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVertebrate predation and consumption by wild Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus spp.) is rare. In contrast to recorded observations of slow loris consumption by Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), no cases of this have been previously published for Bornean orangutans in the wild.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a part of growing up, immature orangutans must acquire vast repertoires of skills and knowledge, a process that takes several years of observational social learning and subsequent practice. Adult female and male orangutans show behavioral differences including sex-specific foraging patterns and male-biased dispersal. We investigated how these differing life trajectories affect social interest and emerging ecological knowledge in immatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPronounced temporal and spatial variation in the availability of food resources can produce energetic deficits in organisms. Fruit-dependent Bornean orangutans face extreme variation in fruit availability and experience negative energy and protein balance during episodes of fruit scarcity. We evaluate the possibility that orangutans of different sexes and ages catabolize muscle tissue when the availability of fruit is low.
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