Orangutans

by Shumaker, Robert W.

• ISBN13: 9780760329993
• ISBN10: 0760329990
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-15
• Publisher: Motorbooks Intl
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Summary

Few animals interest us as much as our relatives the great apes, and among these primates orangutans have a special appeal. The orangutan ("man of the forest" in the Malay language) is highly intelligent, creating and using tools in the wild, solving problems and puzzles in captivity--and manipulating symbols in a way that makes some scientists suspect that this fellow creature might someday master language.A natural history of orangutans by one of the world's foremost researchers on the species, this book provides an introduction that is at once engagingly accessible and in-depth. Here readers will encounter orangutans, the only great apes in Asia, in their ever-shrinking habitat, the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and Borneo.This book delves into their history, their habits, their endangered status, and what studies--many conducted by the author himself--have told us about how orangutans learn, think, and feel.

Author Biography

For more than 20 years, Dr. Rob Shumaker has dedicated his life to the study of orangutans. He is currently Lead Scientist and Director of Orangutan Research at the Great Ape Trust, a research center dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Dr Shumaker is also the former co-ordinator of the Orangutan Language Project at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and the former Director of Behavioral Cognitive Research at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University. A member of the scientific advisory board of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) - Indonesia and BOS-USA and a popular lecturer, he is the author of the Smithsonian publication: Primates in Question: The Smithsonian Answer Book.  Dr. Rob Shumaker lives in Des Moines, Iowa.