NESTING BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS OF ORANGUTAN (PONGO PYGMAEUS MORIO) IN COAL MINING AREA IN EAST KALIMANTAN

Coal mining changed forest structure and composition, it caused large negative impacts on the orangutan. In order to mitigate those negative effects, it is crucial to understand their nesting behavior adaptation in mining area. We investigated 74 times nested event in coal mining rehabilition area (CMRA) in East Kutai and 123 times in the Kutai National Park (Prevab) from October 2013 to September 2014 and include only night nests. We compared both habitats. Orangutans in CMRA built the nest later than in Prevab and used 15 species of trees as nests sites intensively on Senna siamea and Gmelina arborea. In Prevab, 35 species with the higher frequencies on Eusideroxylon zwageri and Dracontomelon dao. The average diameter of nest trees in CMRA smaller than Prevab. The height of nest trees in CMRA with the highest frequency was in 10.1-15 m, while in Prevab was as in 20.1-25 m. Orangutans in CMRA nested at the height of <15 m, lower than in Prevab was >20 m. Reused nest in CMRA was higher than in Prevab. Orangutans in CMRA more often built nests at the peak and limb, while in Prevab at the limb and peak. Orangutans in CMRA had learned to utilize various species and dimensions of trees as the place to build nests

Reproductive success of Bornean orangutan males: scattered in time but clustered in space

The social and mating systems of orangutans, one of our closest relatives, remain poorly understood. Orangutans (Pongo spp.) are highly sexually dimorphic and females are philopatric and maintain individual, but overlapping home ranges, whereas males disperse, are non-territorial and wide-ranging, and show bimaturism, with many years between reaching sexual maturity and attaining full secondary sexual characteristics (including cheek pads (flanges) and emitting long calls). We report on 21 assigned paternities, among 35 flanged and 15 unflanged, genotyped male Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii), studied from 2003 to 2018 in Tuanan (Central Kalimantan, Indonesia). All 10 infants born since mid-2003 with an already identified sire were sired by flanged males. All adult males ranged well beyond the study area (c. 1000 ha), and their dominance relations fluctuated even within short periods. However, 5 of the 10 identified sires had multiple offspring within the monitored area. Several sired over a period of c. 10 years, which overlapped with siring periods of other males. The long-calling behavior of sires indicated they were not consistently dominant over other males in the area around the time of known conceptions. Instead, when they were seen in the area, the known sires spent most of their time within the home ranges of the females whose offspring they sired. Overall, successful sires were older and more often resident than others. Significance statement It is difficult to assess reproductive success for individuals of long-lived species, especially for dispersing males, who cannot be monitored throughout their lives. Due to extremely long interbirth intervals, orangutans have highly male-skewed operational sex ratios and thus intensive male-male competition for every conception. Paternity analyses matched 21 immature Bornean orangutans with their most likely sire (only 10 of 50 genotyped males) in a natural population. Half of these identified sires had multiple offspring in the study area spread over periods of at least 10 years, despite frequently ranging outside this area. Dominance was a poor predictor of success, but, consistent with female mating tactics to reduce the risk of infanticide, known “sires” tended to have relatively high local presence, which seems to contribute to the males’ siring success. The results highlight the importance of large protected areas to enable a natural pattern of dispersal and ranging

Sexual Signalling in Propithecus verreauxi: Male “Chest Badge” and Female Mate Choice

Communication, an essential prerequisite for sociality, involves the transmission of signals. A signal can be defined as any action or trait produced by one animal, the sender, that produces a change in the behaviour of another animal, the receiver. Secondary sexual signals are often used for mate choice because they may inform on a potential partner's quality. Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) is characterized by the presence of two different morphs of males (bimorphism), which can show either a stained or clean chest. The chest becomes stained by secretions of the sternal gland during throat marking (rubbing throat and chest on a vertical substrate while smearing the scent deposition). The role of the chest staining in guiding female mate choice was previously hypothesized but never demonstrated probably due to the difficulty of observing sifaka copulations in the wild. Here we report that stained-chested males had a higher throat marking activity than clean-chested males during the mating season, but not during the birth season. We found that females copulated more frequently with stained-chested males than the clean-chested males. Finally, in agreement with the biological market theory, we found that clean-chested males, with a lower scent-releasing potential, offered more grooming to females. This “grooming for sex” tactic was not completely unsuccessful; in fact, half of the clean-chested males copulated with females, even though at low frequency. In conclusion, the chest stain, possibly correlated with different cues targeted by females, could be one of the parameters which help females in selecting mates

Call Cultures in Orang-Utans?

BACKGROUND: Several studies suggested great ape cultures, arguing that human cumulative culture presumably evolved from such a foundation. These focused on conspicuous behaviours, and showed rich geographic variation, which could not be attributed to known ecological or genetic differences. Although geographic variation within call types (accents) has previously been reported for orang-utans and other primate species, we examine geographic variation in the presence/absence of discrete call types (dialects). Because orang-utans have been shown to have geographic variation that is not completely explicable by genetic or ecological factors we hypothesized that this will be similar in the call domain and predict that discrete call type variation between populations will be found. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We examined long-term behavioural data from five orang-utan populations and collected fecal samples for genetic analyses. We show that there is geographic variation in the presence of discrete types of calls. In exactly the same behavioural context (nest building and infant retrieval), individuals in different wild populations customarily emit either qualitatively different calls or calls in some but not in others. By comparing patterns in call-type and genetic similarity, we suggest that the observed variation is not likely to be explained by genetic or ecological differences. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These results are consistent with the potential presence of 'call cultures' and suggest that wild orang-utans possess the ability to invent arbitrary calls, which spread through social learning. These findings differ substantially from those that have been reported for primates before. First, the results reported here are on dialect and not on accent. Second, this study presents cases of production learning whereas most primate studies on vocal learning were cases of contextual learning. We conclude with speculating on how these findings might assist in bridging the gap between vocal communication in non-human primates and human speech

Behavioral, Ecological, and Evolutionary Aspects of Meat-Eating by Sumatran Orangutans (Pongo abelii)

Meat-eating is an important aspect of human evolution, but how meat became a substantial component of the human diet is still poorly understood. Meat-eating in our closest relatives, the great apes, may provide insight into the emergence of this trait, but most existing data are for chimpanzees. We report 3 rare cases of meat-eating of slow lorises, Nycticebus coucang, by 1 Sumatran orangutan mother–infant dyad in Ketambe, Indonesia, to examine how orangutans find slow lorises and share meat. We combine these 3 cases with 2 previous ones to test the hypothesis that slow loris captures by orangutans are seasonal and dependent on fruit availability. We also provide the first (to our knowledge) quantitative data and high-definition video recordings of meat chewing rates by great apes, which we use to estimate the minimum time necessary for a female Australopithecus africanus to reach its daily energy requirements when feeding partially on raw meat. Captures seemed to be opportunistic but orangutans may have used olfactory cues to detect the prey. The mother often rejected meat sharing requests and only the infant initiated meat sharing. Slow loris captures occurred only during low ripe fruit availability, suggesting that meat may represent a filler fallback food for orangutans. Orangutans ate meat more than twice as slowly as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), suggesting that group living may function as a meat intake accelerator in hominoids. Using orangutan data as a model, time spent chewing per day would not require an excessive amount of time for our social ancestors (australopithecines and hominids), as long as meat represented no more than a quarter of their diet

Orangutans: geographic variation in behavioral ecology and conservation

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 behavioral 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 book synthesizes and compares the data, quantify the similarities or differences, and seeks to explain them

Social organization and male-female relationships

Despite their semi-solitary nature, associations among orangutans are more common than expected by chance for most combinations of age-sex classes. Variation in party size is due to variation in food availability or sexual activity, reflecting the two main types of parties encountered in orangutans. Parties may involve mating or are formed around mothers and immatures of various ages, in which social play is the main social activity. Beyond direct association, Sumatran females tend to remain within audible range of the dominant flanged males, using his long calls to adjust their ranging. Females tend to be more philopatric than males, although it is not clear whether males disperse away from their natal range or end up including their natal range within a much larger home range. The accumulating evidence suggests that orangutans live in more than mere neighbourhoods, but in loose communities in which related females form clusters, share a preference for the same dominant flanged male, within whose earshot they tend to remain and whose ranging is more limited. Further study should reveal whether this Sumatra-derived picture also holds for Borneo

Nest building in orangutans

Orangutans, like the other great apes, build nests ever day. Nests probably serve to achieve the optimum combination of physical comfort, temperature, and safety against predators and parasites. The chapter describes the basic nest-building technique used by orangutans, and draws attention to various special additions to this basic design, whose presence varies geographically. When nesting during the day, orangutans are more likely to use existing nests, or rebuild existing ones, and when building a new nest, do so much faster than when nesting for the night. Orangutans readily build day nests in fruiting trees, but strongly avoid building night nests in them at most sites. Instead, they build their night nests in a selected range of species, which are often not the most frequently encountered in the forest. What features of the trees causes this striking selectivity remains unclear. Similarly, orangutans build their nests in a variety of structural positions in the tree, and there is no good explanation for the geographic variation in the distribution of positions found among sites

Male-male relationships in orangutans

Sexually mature male orangutans live in home ranges that are 3–5 times that of adult females and show very high overlap. Encounters among flanged males, while rare, are invariably antagonistic and may lead to injury or death. Their dominance relations are not always transitive, however, producing non-linear hierarchies, probably because they usually meet one on one. Flanged males in consortship with a receptive female frequently chase unflanged males trailing them, but never catch them, so that unflanged males often remain associated with the consort pair. Unflanged males are more tolerant among each other, although attacks also occur. The response of flanged males to long calls they hear depends on their dominance position: the dominant male approaches them, whereas the other males tend to avoid them. There is no conclusive information on the reaction of unflanged males. Data from Sumatra suggest that dominant flanged males and the males challenging them for local dominance were most commonly present in a given study area, suggesting that non-dominant males roamed more widely in search of uncontested access to females