Q 01/05

On which two islands are wild orangutans found?

A) Java and Bali

B) Sulawesi and Borneo

C) Borneo and Sumatra

D) Sumatra and New Guinea

Answer · why

C) Borneo and Sumatra

During the Pleistocene they ranged across Southeast Asia and southern China.

Q 02/05

Most Western sources say the name 'orangutan' comes from Malay words meaning what?

A) Red ape of Borneo

B) Person of the forest

C) Old man of the trees

D) Long-armed climber

Answer · why

B) 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 03/05

What is the orangutan's genus?

A) Pongo

B) Pan

C) Gorilla

D) Hylobates

Answer · why

A) Pongo

The name comes from Andrew Battel's 16th-century account of two African 'monsters', Pongo and Engeco, which were probably gorillas.

Q 04/05

How many orangutan species were recognised as of 2025?

A) Four

B) Three

C) Five

D) Six

Answer · why

B) Three

Bornean, Sumatran, and the Tapanuli orangutan, identified definitively in 2017.

Q 05/05

The Tapanuli orangutan, described in 2017, is found only in which area?

A) Sabangau, Borneo

B) Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra

C) Batang Toru, Sumatra

D) Danum Valley, Sabah

Answer · why

C) Batang Toru, Sumatra

Fewer than 800 survive, making it one of the most endangered great apes.

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