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60 free Orangutan trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This orangutan trivia quiz covers the three species (Bornean, Sumatran and the Tapanuli orangutan discovered only in 2017), the biology of Asia's only great ape (cheek flanges, throat-pouch long calls, kiss squeaks, the double-locked hook grip, the longest birth interval of any great ape and eight-year nursing) and its intelligence: nest 'pillows' and 'bunk beds', calculated reciprocity, Rakus treating his own wound with a medicinal vine, and Bonnie the whistling orangutan. It also covers orangutans and people: what the Malay name really means, Linnaeus calling it Homo troglodytes, Biruté Galdikas and Camp Leakey, Jenny meeting Darwin, Ken Allen the 'hairy Houdini', Sandra's Argentine court case, Sir Oran Haut-Ton standing for Parliament, Dr Zaius, King Louie and the Discworld Librarian. Conservation questions cover palm oil, population estimates and the fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans left. Every question was verified against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia article on orangutans) and carries a citation. Try our gorilla and chimpanzee quizzes to complete the great-ape set.
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Q 01On which two islands are wild orangutans found?
Borneo and Sumatra
During the Pleistocene they ranged across Southeast Asia and southern China.
Q 02Most Western sources say the name 'orangutan' comes from Malay words meaning what?
Person of the forest
Orang is 'person' and hutan is 'forest'; the Malays used it for forest-dwelling humans before Westerners applied it to the ape.
Q 03What is the orangutan's genus?
Pongo
The name comes from Andrew Battel's 16th-century account of two African 'monsters', Pongo and Engeco, which were probably gorillas.
Q 04How many orangutan species were recognised as of 2025?
Three
Bornean, Sumatran, and the Tapanuli orangutan, identified definitively in 2017.
Q 05The Tapanuli orangutan, described in 2017, is found only in which area?
Batang Toru, Sumatra
Fewer than 800 survive, making it one of the most endangered great apes.
Q 06What was the surprising twist about the Tapanuli orangutan's genetics?
It is closer to Bornean than Sumatran orangutans
Its range is thought to be near where ancestral orangutans first entered Indonesia from mainland Asia.
Q 07The orangutans are the only surviving members of which subfamily?
Ponginae
That subfamily also included Gigantopithecus, the largest primate ever, which lived in China until 300,000 years ago.
Q 08Which extinct giant ape, the largest primate known, belonged to the orangutan's subfamily?
Gigantopithecus
It lived in China from 2 million to about 300,000 years ago.
Q 09Under what name did Linnaeus first describe the orangutan in 1758?
Homo troglodytes
His student Christian Emmanuel Hopp renamed it Simia pygmaeus in 1760, and Lacépède supplied Pongo in 1799.
Q 10How many diploid chromosomes does an orangutan have?
48
That matches gorillas and chimpanzees; humans have 46 because two ancestral chromosomes fused.
Q 11What distinctive feature do dominant adult male orangutans develop?
Cheek pads or flanges
The pads are mostly fatty tissue; subordinate males can delay developing them for years while a dominant male is present.
Q 12What do the male orangutan's throat pouches do?
Act as resonance chambers for long calls
A long call begins with grumbles, peaks with pulses and ends with bubbles.
Q 13Among the great apes, orangutans are the most what?
Arboreal and solitary
Social bonds are mostly between mothers and their dependent offspring; social grooming is rare.
Q 21What noise does an uncomfortable orangutan make by sucking air through pursed lips?
A kiss squeak
Wild orangutans in Tuanan cup leaves to their mouths to amplify it, possibly to sound bigger than they are.
Q 22Orangutans have the longest interval between births of any great ape. How long is it?
Six to nine years
A female first gives birth at about 15 and, unlike other apes, shows no sexual swellings to signal fertility.
Q 23Female orangutans may nurse their offspring for up to how many years, longer than any other mammal?
Eight
Young reach adolescence at six or seven and can live alone, but stay connected to their mothers.
Q 14How much does an adult male orangutan typically weigh?
75 kg
Females are about half that, at around 37 kg; the tallest orangutan recorded stood 180 cm.
Q 15What is the approximate arm span of a male orangutan?
About 2 metres
Their arms are proportionally long and their legs short, and their hips rotate almost like shoulders.
Q 16How does orangutan hair colour change with age?
Bright orange darkens to maroon or chocolate
The skin underneath is grey-black, and males can grow a beard.
Q 17Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, how do orangutans move on the ground?
On the sides of their hands and feet
They rarely descend at all; in the trees they use a double-locked hook grip with fingers curled against the palm.
Q 18Which big cat is a potential predator of orangutans on Sumatra?
The tiger
Clouded leopards and wild dogs are also potential threats.
Q 19Fruit can take up what share of an orangutan's foraging time?
57 to 80%
Even in lean times fruit is 16% of feeding; figs are the favourite, and they will also eat slow lorises.
Q 20Orangutans are thought to be the sole seed disperser of Strychnos ignatii, a vine containing which toxin?
Strychnine
They also eat soil for its kaolin minerals, which may counter the tannins and phenolic acids in their diet.
Q 24What is orangutan 'buddy travel'?
Young apes moving through trees holding hands
It starts around eighteen months, when the infant is no longer clinging permanently to its mother's belly.
Q 25Which mating behaviour is unusually common in orangutans compared with other mammals?
Forced copulation by unflanged males
Females prefer flanged males and pair with them for protection; male orangutans, unusually, do not seem to practise infanticide.
Q 26What extras do orangutans add to make their night nests more comfortable?
Pillows, blankets, roofs and bunk-beds
They bend big branches into a foundation, add leafy 'mattress' branches, then braid the tips in for stability.
Q 27A 2008 Leipzig Zoo study made orangutans the first non-human species documented doing what?
Calculated reciprocity
That is helping another individual with the expectation of being paid back.
Q 28Bonnie, an orangutan at the US National Zoo, was recorded doing what after hearing a caretaker?
Whistling
She did it without expecting a food reward, showing orangutans can learn to control their vocal folds to mimic new sounds.
Q 29Orangutans have been observed using sticks to poke at which prey to make them leap from the water?
Catfish
They also keep tools for later use and prefer to hold tools in their mouths.
Q 30In 2022 a Sumatran orangutan named Rakus was seen treating a facial wound with what?
Chewed leaves of a medicinal vine
The wound had closed within five days and healed within weeks, leaving only a small scar.