AnAge entry for Pongo pygmaeus

Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits

Like other great apes, orangutans appear to be long-lived. Even in the wild, these animals might live more than 50 years. One field study conducted in the abelii subspecies estimated maximum longevity in the wild to be at least 58 years for males and at least 53 years for females without any evidence of menopause [0737]. One wild born male was about 59 years old when he died in captivity [0671]. Some authors consider Pongo pygmaeus abelii to be a separate species.

Life history traits (averages)

Metabolism

References

[0757] Anderson et al. (2008), Fertility and mortality patterns of captive Bornean and Sumatran orangutans: is there a species difference in life history?, PubMed
[0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
[0737] Wich et al. (2004), Life history of wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), PubMed
[0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
[0681] Peter Kappeler and Michael Pereira (2003), Primate Life Histories and Socioecology
[0214] Maggioncalda and Sapolsky (2002), Disturbing behaviors of the orangutan, PubMed
[0108] Steinert et al. (2002), Telomere biology and cellular aging in nonhuman primate cells, PubMed
[0467] Lindenfors (2002), Sexually antagonistic selection on primate size
[0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
[0215] Gearing et al. (1997), beta-Amyloid (A beta) deposition in the brains of aged orangutans, PubMed
[0164] Holleschau and Rathbun (1994), The effects of age on glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase activities in lenses of Old World simians and prosimians, PubMed
[0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
[0075] Selkoe et al. (1987), Conservation of brain amyloid proteins in aged mammals and humans with Alzheimer's disease, PubMed
[0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
[0679] Harvey and Clutton-Brock (1985), Life-history variation in primates
[0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
[0059] Tolmasoff et al. (1980), Superoxide dismutase: correlation with life-span and specific metabolic rate in primate species, PubMed
[0436] Cutler (1979), Evolution of human longevity: a critical overview, PubMed

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