What happens to male Orang-Utans in captivity ?

[GiratinaIsGod]

I was thinkign how male Orang-Utans are handeled in cpativity ? As far as I know, male Orangs, do not tollerate other males, unlike chimpanzees or Bonobos, but I never seen a bachlor group like in Gorilas. So what do they with the left over males ? Are they kept behind the scenes, or are there bachlor groups for them ?

 

[turkeyfox]

By far the most common configuration of orangutans I've seen is one male and one female. I actually can't remember visiting a zoo that had more than two adult orangutans at one time.

If my anecdotal experience applies to zoos overall, then assuming orangutans have a 1:1 birth ratio like (almost?) all other mammals there would not be a surplus of males like for other apes where one male is kept with multiple females.

 

[lintworm]

I was thinkign how male Orang-Utans are handeled in cpativity ? As far as I know, male Orangs, do not tollerate other males, unlike chimpanzees or Bonobos, but I never seen a bachlor group like in Gorilas. So what do they with the left over males ? Are they kept behind the scenes, or are there bachlor groups for them ?

Tiger enrichment

On a more serious note, there are a few small bachelor groups of orangutans around, but they are quite rare. While zoos tended to have multiple females for every adult male, many newer exhibits tend to move to a similar number of adult males and females or at least have the capacity to hold multiple males (which is good for the females as in the ideal situation they could choose which male to spend time with). This is necessary as it is currently very hard to find a good place for male orangutans once they leave their mothers. I would guess there is currently still a small bias towards females, but with the old generation of wild caught animals slowly dying, that bias will more or less disappear.

There have also been cases of single male orangutans being kept solitary behind the scenes (there was one on the roof of the Zoo Berlin ape house for years), but fortunately that (almost?) seems to be a thing of the past.

 

[Pertinax]

Port Lympne recently took on a pair of subadult Sumatran males from Zurich Zoo. There was talk that they may have needed to euthanase them if they couldn't find a new home for them.

 

[JT]

There have also been cases of single male orangutans being kept solitary behind the scenes (there was one on the roof of the Zoo Berlin ape house for years), but fortunately that (almost?) seems to be a thing of the past.

In fairness, they are largely solitary so it’s not really a huge problem providing the off show enclosure meets their needs.

 

[lintworm]

In fairness, they are largely solitary so it’s not really a huge problem providing the off show enclosure meets their needs.

While they do lead relatively solitary lives in the wild, they still have a complex social structure, with a male orang utan territory overlapping with that of multiple females, which seek each other out occasionally. To deprive a male orangutan of the choice to be with conspecifics is therefore still a huge problem.