what do orangutans eat.
Because over 60% of their diet is fruit (based on averaging thousands of observations), they are considered frugivores; however, orangutans also will eat young leaves (approximately 25% of their diet), flowers and bark (approximately 10%) and insects, mainly ants, termites, pupae, and crickets (approximately 5%).
Orangutans supplement their diet with leaves, bark, insects, and seeds when the fruit is scarce. Orangutans typically prefer to consume fruits when they are readily available. Orangutans rarely feed on animal prey such as loris (Loris spp.) precisely because they are not active hunters. They are intelligent animals and when the food is scarce they use tools to extract otherwise unavailable foods. Orangutans are very good at extracting food in that they insert probe tools into tree trunks and take out the larvae, insects, and honey. By doing so, they make up the deficiency of food. Depends on the season, orangutanâs diet varies significantly. About 65 â 90% of the orangutanâs diet is composed of fruits.