VIDEO: Clingy Orangutan Gets too Close for Comfort

A tourist in the jungles of Indonesia got up close and personal with a clingy orangutan.

Animals are wonderful creatures!

They can shows emotion, they can fell pain, they can be hurting and they can be grateful.

Animals always show gratitude to humans when they have reasons to do so.

This video proves that animals and humans could be really great friends, too!

According to Live Science, orangutans are great apes, a classification that includes gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans. They are the only great apes found in Asia. Orangutans are also the world’s largest arboreal mammals, which means they are the largest mammals that have the capability to live in trees.

Orangutans are endangered. They have become extinct in some parts of Asia. Most of their forest habitat in Borneo and Sumatra has been lost to make room for palm oil plantations.

Orangutans are covered in long, flowing red or orange fur, except for their distinct bare faces. Their arms are longer than their bowed legs, and their hands much like human hands.

Because orangutans spend most of their time in trees, their long arms, fingers and toes are quite useful as they swing from branch to branch. An orangutan’s arm-span is longer that its height. A male’s arm-span can reach 7 feet (2 meters) from fingertip to fingertip.

There are two species of orangutan. Bornean orangutans are more heavy-set than Sumatran orangutans. They also have larger cheek pads, called flanges, which form rigid half-circles on the sides of their faces.

In both species, there are flanged males, which are twice the size of females, and unflanged males, which are around the same size as female orangutans. An unflanged male can become a flanged male, but scientists are uncertain as to why or how. Both unflanged and flanged males can produce offspring.

On average, orangutan females are around 45 inches (114 centimeters) tall, while males are around 54 inches (136 cm) tall. Females weigh an average of 81.5 lbs. (37 kilograms) and males average around 191 lbs. (87 kg).

Unlike other apes who have very strong social bonds, orangutans are considered semi-social. While they do hang out with other orangutans, they like to live alone for the most part.

Orangutans are very smart and have a unique approach to problem solving. For example, “if a chimpanzee is given an oddly shaped peg and several different holes to try to put it in, the chimpanzee immediately tries shoving the peg in various holes until it finds the correct hole.

But an orangutan approaches the challenge quite differently. It may stare off into space or even scratch itself with the peg. Then, after a while, it offhandedly sticks the peg into the correct hole while looking at something else that has caught its interest!”

Flanged males are very aggressive toward other males. They also have a throat sac that is used to make “long calls.” These calls can be heard 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away.

These long calls are useful for reaching females since orangutans are territorial. Females have territories that are around 3.5 square miles (9 square km) and males have territories that are around 15 square miles (39 square km).