Comments on: On the biophysics of Sumatran orangutan swaying

By: Dwain Kolasinski

Dwain Kolasinski — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 05:09:39 +0000

Thank you for the entertaining read! Alright playtime is over and back to school work.

By: Mz.Diva

Mz.Diva — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:04:11 +0000

I have to do a report on orangutans. I was watching orangutan island on animal planet and what I found out is that they can’t swim and one drowned it was sad. He died in only 1/2 feet-that is how bad they cant swim. But This site needs to add mor einfo because I find it hard looking for good information.

By: Quickie on Orangutan Bipedalism « Primatology.net

Quickie on Orangutan Bipedalism « Primatology.net — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:08:42 +0000

[...] this sounds kinda sorta familiar to this very recent post, “On the biophysics of Sumatran orangutan swaying,” it is! The same researchers that observed orangutans cheat the system and choose limbs [...]

By: Anthropology.net

Anthropology.net — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:05:08 +0000

Orangutans & the (possible) Origins of Human Bipedalism

I was debating whether or not to post this over at Primatology.net because it involves orangutans and the research of them. But, I decided not to because the topic, bipedalism, is almost uniquely human in the mammalian world. We are exclusively bipedal…

By: Kambiz

Kambiz — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:12:24 +0000

Kirsty, I do not have access to the entire article at this university. What I have gathered from the paper's abstract, where the study was conducted isn't totally clear,

"field observations suggest that some primates may be able to use support compliance to increase the energetic efficiency of locomotion. Here, we calculate the energetic cost of alternative methods of gap crossing in orangutans (Pongo abelii). Tree sway (in which orangutans oscillate a compliant tree trunk with increasing magnitude to bridge a gap) was found to be less than half as costly as jumping, and an order of magnitude less costly than descending the tree, walking to the vine and climbing it. Observations of wild orangutans suggest that they actually use support compliance in many aspects of their locomotor behaviour."

I've bolded aspects of the abstract which lead me to think these studies, calculations, etc. were done with wild orangutans. So that means we don't have a zoo. I could be wrong, but I'm just picking that off of what I have in front of me.

By: kirsty williams

kirsty williams — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:50:53 +0000

it is really good but i needed to now where in the uk in the zoos and the names of the zoos in the uk please

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 01 May 2007 15:25:07 +0000

I guess the newspapers are a week or more behind everyone else, but they managed to have a snippet.

Comment on: New York Times, May 1, 2007, p. F3, “Instead of Leaping, Sumatran Orangutans Sway From Tree to Tree.”

Swayed by her argument
to save energy, and
let sleeping tigers lie,
the Orangutan
swayed a tree
for Susannah K. Thorpe*
while colleagues
were busy
waving at Bonobos elsewhere
asking them if
anthropomorphizing
would be justified in
gorilla warfare and spelling
of the gestures noted

*University of Birmingham in England. Gunung Leuser National Park.

By: Save the Orangutan - BOS UK» Blog Archive » On the biophysics of Sumatran orangutan swaying

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:39:01 +0000

[...] Read the original story here: http://primatology.org/2007/04/18/on-the-biophysics-of-sumatran-orangutans-swaying/ [...]

By: Kambiz

Kambiz — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:04:24 +0000

Totally unrelated to Doug’s comment, but I was wondering if someone has, is, or plans to do a similar swing study on gibbons, specifically siamang gibbons?

From what I have seen of them, they are prolific swingers, a bit lighter than their heavier ape counterparts, the orangutans… but I am confident they select for branches that better support their weight.

Anyone out there studying this or know of a publication related to this?

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:24:13 +0000

That is interesting how they are well-adapted to swinging in the trees for efficient locomotion. Sometimes it seems odd the quirks that evolution has taken. Driven to strategies to avoid predators, the weak seem to do well with increased intellegence and adapting, until perhaps they become predators of each other as humans seem to do. Some creatures adapt by jumping and swinging. But on the other hand, I wonder about those that jumped from trees and learned to glide or fly: the bat, the “flying squirrel”, and it’s hard to imagine the evolution of the flight of the dynosaurs… It is interesting that equations of the pendulum have only been solved in an approximation(as it’s actually non-linear) but work well for small arcs.

Bi-pedal, hmm, there are lots of things that come in two’s or fours, but why is it that three eyes has never seemed to have worked very well– an eye on the back of the head would seem like a handy thing to have… But when it comes to our tools, wheels seems to work better than a four-legged cheetah. Maybe when artificial intelligence can mimic a cheetah brain we can make a car that runs on four legs, or a lost cat catcher than swings from trees as well as an Orangutan…