Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89186-4
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Funding
- Biology Department at Universitas Nasional (UNAS)
- Indonesian State Ministry for Research and Technology (RISTEK)
- Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI)
- Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA)
- Ministry of Internal Affairs
- Nature Conservation Agency Palangkaraya (BKSDA)
- local government in Central Kalimantan
- Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF Indonesia)
- BOSF Mawas in Palangkaraya
- National Science Foundation [BCS-0643122, BCS-1719825]
- L.S.B. Leakey Foundation
- United States Agency for International Development
- Orangutan Outreach
- Rutgers University
- Center for Human Evolutionary Studies
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The research found that during periods of fruit scarcity, all age and sex classes of orangutans had lower estimated lean body mass (ELBM). Adult male orangutans had higher ELBM, and there was no significant difference in ELBM between unflanged and flanged males. The results highlight the vulnerability of orangutan health in the face of rapid environmental change.
Pronounced temporal and spatial variation in the availability of food resources can produce energetic deficits in organisms. Fruit-dependent Bornean orangutans face extreme variation in fruit availability and experience negative energy and protein balance during episodes of fruit scarcity. We evaluate the possibility that orangutans of different sexes and ages catabolize muscle tissue when the availability of fruit is low. We assess variation in muscle mass by examining the relationship between urinary creatinine and specific gravity and use the residuals as a non-invasive measure of estimated lean body mass (ELBM). Despite orangutans having a suite of adaptations to buffer them from fruit scarcity and associated caloric deficits, ELBM was lower during low fruit periods in all age-sex classes. As predicted, adult male orangutans had higher ELBM than adult females and immatures. Contrary to expectation, flanged and unflanged males did not differ significantly in ELBM. These findings highlight the precarity of orangutan health in the face of rapid environmental change and add to a growing body of evidence that orangutans are characterized by unique metabolic traits shaped by their unpredictable forest environment.
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