Among Orangutans

The local people know him as the "Man of the Forest," who refused to speak for fear of being put to work. And indeed the bear-like Sumatran orangutan, with his moon face, lanky arms, and shaggy red hair, does seem uncannily human; one of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, the orangutan may have much to tell us about the origins of human intelligence, technology, and culture. In this book one of the world's leading experts on Sumatran orangutans, working in collaboration with nature photographer Perry van Duijnhoven, takes us deep into the disappearing world of these captivating primates. In a narrative that is part adventure, part field journal, part call to conscience, Carel van Schaik introduces us to the colorful characters and complex lives of the orangutans who inhabit the vanishing forests of Sumatra. In compelling words and pictures, we come to know the personalities and temperaments of our primate cousins as they go about their days: building double-decker tree nests; using leaves as napkins, gloves, rain hats, and blankets, and sticks as backscratchers and probes; nurturing their infants longer and more intensely than any other nonhuman mammal. Here are the births and deaths, the first use of a tool, the defeat of a rival, the gradual loss of influence that, while fascinating to observe, may also help us to reconstruct human evolution.

Describes the life and research of Birute Galdikas, prominent expert on the behavior of orangutans in the wild.

A student of the renowned paleontologist Dr. Louis B. Leakey and a colleague of both Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, Birute Galdikas is the world's foremost authority on the life and behavior of the orangutan. For more than twenty years she has lived in the jungles of Borneo, devoting her life to studying and preserving this endangered animal as well as its disappearing rain forest habitat. The informative text describes both the obstacles and adventures of Dr. Galdikas's explorations as well as her startling discoveries, and the full-color photographs brilliantly capture her life among the orangutans. Birute Galdikas is an impressive role model, and her inspiring story serves as a reminder that the future of our fragile world, as well as our understanding of it, lies in the dreams and determination of today's young naturalists.

This book describes one of our closest relatives, the orangutan, and the only extant great ape in Asia. It is increasingly clear that orangutan populations show extensive variation in behavioural ecology, morphology, life history, and genes. Indeed, on the strength of the latest genetic and morphological evidence, it has been proposed that orangutans actually constitute two species which diverged more than a million years ago - one on the island of Sumatra the other on Borneo, with the latter comprising three subspecies. This book has two main aims. The first is to carefully compare data from every orangutan research site, examining the differences and similarities between orangutan species, subspecies and populations. The second is to develop a theoretical framework in which these differences and similarities can be explained. To achieve these goals the editors have assembled the world's leading orangutan experts to rigorously synthesize and compare the data, quantify the similarities or differences, and seek to explain them. Orangutans is the first synthesis of orangutan biology to adopt this novel, comparative approach. It analyses and compares the latest data, developing a theoretical framework to explain morphological, life history, and behavioural variation. Intriguingly, not all behavioural differences can be attributed to ecological variation between and within the two islands; relative rates of social learning also appear to have been influential. The book also emphasizes the crucial impact of human settlement on orangutans and looks ahead to the future prospects for the survival of critically endangered natural populations.

Collective works on the orang-utan, from the broader evolutionary perspective to the details of what makes this animal not just unique among humanoids, but distinctive among primates in general.

Orangutans, together with chimpanzees and gorillas, are our closest living relatives. Photographic and Descriptive Musculoskeletal Atlas of Orangutans, the first photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of the genus Pongo, adopts the same format as the photographic atlases of Gorilla, Pan and Hylobates previously published by the sam

This comprehensive and authoritative review of the distribution and conservation status of Great Apes includes individual country profiles for each species and overview chapters on ape biology, ecology, and conservation challenges.

Presentation of groundbreaking research on an extensive range of tool using animals, looking particularly at the evolution of cognitive abilities.