The Natural History of Orang-utan PDF Download

Author: Robert Cribb
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824840267
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Wild Man from Borneo offers the first comprehensive history of the human-orangutan encounter. Arguably the most humanlike of all the great apes, particularly in intelligence and behavior, the orangutan has been cherished, used, and abused ever since it was first brought to the attention of Europeans in the seventeenth century. The red ape has engaged the interest of scientists, philosophers, artists, and the public at large in a bewildering array of guises that have by no means been exclusively zoological or ecological. One reason for such a long-term engagement with a being found only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is that, like its fellow great apes, the orangutan stands on that most uncomfortable dividing line between human and animal, existing, for us, on what has been called “the dangerous edge of the garden of nature.” Beginning with the scientific discovery of the red ape more than three hundred years ago, this work goes on to examine the ways in which its human attributes have been both recognized and denied in science, philosophy, travel literature, popular science, literature, theatre, museums, and film. The authors offer a provocative analysis of the origin of the name “orangutan,” trace how the ape has been recruited to arguments on topics as diverse as slavery and rape, and outline the history of attempts to save the animal from extinction. Today, while human populations increase exponentially, that of the orangutan is in dangerous decline. The remaining “wild men of Borneo” are under increasing threat from mining interests, logging, human population expansion, and the widespread destruction of forests. The authors hope that this history will, by adding to our knowledge of this fascinating being, assist in some small way in their preservation.

Author: Elizabeth L. Bennett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789838120685
Category : Bornean orangutan
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Elizabeth L. Bennett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Author: Juno Salazar Parreñas
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822371944
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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In Decolonizing Extinction Juno Salazar Parreñas ethnographically traces the ways in which colonialism, decolonization, and indigeneity shape relations that form more-than-human worlds at orangutan rehabilitation centers on Borneo. Parreñas tells the interweaving stories of wildlife workers and the centers' endangered animals while demonstrating the inseparability of risk and futurity from orangutan care. Drawing on anthropology, primatology, Southeast Asian history, gender studies, queer theory, and science and technology studies, Parreñas suggests that examining workers’ care for these semi-wild apes can serve as a basis for cultivating mutual but unequal vulnerability in an era of annihilation. Only by considering rehabilitation from perspectives thus far ignored, Parreñas contends, could conservation biology turn away from ultimately violent investments in population growth and embrace a feminist sense of welfare, even if it means experiencing loss and pain.

Author: Elizabeth L. Bennett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789838121217
Category : Bornean orangutan
Languages : en
Pages : 93

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Author: Ronald Orenstein
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 9780228103783
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Native to the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, wild orangutans are listed as critically endangered. The rarest of them all, the Tapanuli orangutan, was only recognized as a separate species in 2017, and today, it is the rarest great ape in the world. In Orangutans, zoologist and conservationist Ronald Orenstein draws on the latest research to survey the natural and cultural history of these charismatic red apes as well as their present and future. Divided into three parts, the book first traces orangutan ancestry from the distant past to the present and then explores the various roles orangutans have played throughout human history, from Indigenous cultures in Southeast Asia, to European colonialism and scientific exploration, to the pop culture of today. Part two details the latest scientific discoveries about orangutans and what we currently know about their habitat, diet, behavior, social structures and abilities. The final section of the book turns to the threats orangutans face today, from the destruction of their forest homes for agriculture to deliberate killings, captures and the illegal trade that supplies animals for display, collection and entertainment. The author also surveys the efforts being made to save them from extinction, to preserve their ecosystems and to return orphaned orangutans to a life in the wild. Featuring over 150 full-color photographs, maps, a list of orangutan organizations to support and an extensive bibliography, Orangutans is an important, engaging and beautiful work about one of nature's most captivating animals.

Author: Robert W. Shumaker
Publisher: Colin Baxter Photography
ISBN: 9781841073699
Category : Orangutans
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
An engaging introduction to the natural history of orangutans by one of the world's foremost researchers on the species.

Author: Serge A. Wich
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191574597
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
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.

Author: Carel van Schaik
Publisher: teNeues
ISBN: 9780674015777
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
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.

Author: Chris Herzfeld
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616859X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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She likes tea, sews, draws on papers and is a self-taught master of tying and untying knots. But she is not a crafty woman of the DIY set: she is Wattana, an orangutan who lives in the Jardin des Plantes Zoo in Paris. And it is in Paris where Chris Herzfeld first encounters and becomes impressed by Wattana and her exceptional abilities with knots. In Wattana: An Orangutan in Paris Herzfeld tells not only Wattana’s fascinating story, but also the story of orangutans and other primates—including bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas—in captivity. Offering a uniquely intimate look at the daily lives of captive great apes, Herzfeld uses Wattana’s life to trace the history of orangutans from their first arrival in Europe in 1776 to the inhabitants of the Zoo of Paris and other zoos today. She provides a close look at the habits, technical know-how, and skills of Wattana, who, remarkably, uses strings, paper rolls, rope, and even pieces of wood to make things. And she thoughtfully explores how apes individually—and often with ingenuity—come to terms with and adapt to their captive environments and caretakers. Through these stories, Wattana sympathetically reveals the extraordinary psychology and distinctive personalities of great apes as well as the interconnections between animal and human lives, especially in zoos. Scientists predict that orangutans will disappear from the wild by 2030, and captive animals like Wattana may, as a result, provide our best chance to understand and appreciate their astonishing intelligence and abilities. Wattana, the accomplished maker of knots, is the hero of this poignant book, which will enthrall anyone curious about the lives of our primate cousins.