Diet
 The orangutan diet is made up of bark, leaves, flowers, a variety of insects, and most importantly, over 300 kinds of fruit.
The mothers must teach the babies what food to eat, where to find that food, in which trees and during which seasons.
It is thought that orangutans must have a very complex map of the forest in their mind, and detailed knowledge of the fruiting cycles of many species of trees. This prevents wasting valuable energy searching for fruit trees randomly, and travelling to a certain fruiting tree whose fruits will not ripen for some time.
The babies must eventually know hundreds of species of plants and trees, which ones are edible, and how to process them as some are very difficult to eat because they are protected by sharp spines and shells.
Orangutan Facts
Biology
Behaviour
Photo: Karen Stenner
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