News
Herbivorous Orangutan Breed Caught Eating Meat

Herbivorous Orangutan Breed Caught Eating Meat


When it comes to food, humans have plenty to choose from and no shortage of preferences. Animals don’t — even without access to breads and sweets, they still manage on meats or plants, or the occasional overlap of the two. But that overlap may have just grown a little larger, because an orangutan has been caught cheating on his proverbial diet.

Specifically, it’s the Bornean orangutan that researchers have followed. Its breed has been a research subject for ages, with over sixteen thousand hours of observation time compiled; despite that, a team from the University of Cambridge followed one of the orangutans into the depths of his forest home. He showed hostility every step of the way, but eventually — and despite his best efforts to conceal it — the team witnessed the orangutan eating the bones, skin, tail, and fur of a dead squirrel.

The current theory is that orangutans at large haven’t necessarily turned into carnivores; that would imply they had the speed and agility to catch their prey. Rather, it means that the breeds have no problems playing the scavenger — and more importantly, that they can develop unique dietary habits and preferences. In that way, they’re a lot more like humans than once thought; now there’s another factor that binds the species together.