title: Meat-eating by a wild Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus).
abstract: We present the first evidence for consumption of meat by a wild Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus). Meat-eating has been reported in Sumatran orang-utans, specifically the hunting and consumption of slow lorises (Nycticebus coucang), but loris-hunting behaviour has not been observed in the Bornean species and meat of any species is essentially absent from their diet, with only two anecdotal reports of vertebrate meat consumption prior to this current finding in over 40 years of study. In August 2012 an unhabituated adult flanged male orang-utan was observed eating an adult horse-tailed squirrel (Sundasciurus hippurus) carcass in the Sabangau peat-swamp forest, Central Kalimantan. We suspect this to be a case of scavenging, never reported previously in a Bornean orang-utan.
authors: Wildlife Research Group, The Anatomy School, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK. bjwbuckley@gmail.com.|The Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project, Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands, Universitas Palangka Raya, Jl Yos Sudarso, Palangka Raya, 73112, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. bjwbuckley@gmail.com.|, Wyke House, Malt House Close, Broom, Warwickshire, B50 4JB, UK. bjwbuckley@gmail.com.
authors: Benjamin J W
authors: BJ
authors: Buckley
authors: The Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project, Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands, Universitas Palangka Raya, Jl Yos Sudarso, Palangka Raya, 73112, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
authors: Rosalie J
authors: RJ
authors: Dench
authors: The Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project, Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands, Universitas Palangka Raya, Jl Yos Sudarso, Palangka Raya, 73112, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.|College of Life and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, UK.
authors: Helen C
authors: HC
authors: Morrogh-Bernard
authors: The Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project, Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands, Universitas Palangka Raya, Jl Yos Sudarso, Palangka Raya, 73112, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
authors: Unyil
authors: U
authors: Bustani
authors: Wildlife Research Group, The Anatomy School, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK.
authors: David J
authors: DJ
authors: Chivers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001893:Borneo; D004032:Diet; D020387:Food Chain; D007214:Indonesia; D008142:Lorisidae; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000502:physiology*; D011235:Predatory Behavior
keywords: Borneo; Meat-eating; Orang-utan; Pongo pygmaeus; Scavenging