A recent article on the ScienceDaily website discusses the results of a study on the activity level of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). It seems that Homo sapiens sapiens is not the only species to have “couch potato” tendencies.
The article, written by Neil Schoenherr, looks at a study conducted by Washington University, located in St. Louis, in which researchers studied the activity levels and energy output of orangutans living in a large indoor/outdoor habitat located at the 230-acre campus of the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. What they observed was fascinating. The researchers found that these captive orangutans used less energy, relative to body mass, than nearly any other eutherian mammal ever measured. This would include comparisons to sedentary humans. What makes the results even more interesting is that the activity level of the orangutans studied is very similar to that of their cousins living in the wild.
Herman Pontzer, PhD, is the assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and was the lead author of the study. He is quoted in the article as saying, “It’s like finding a sloth in your family tree. It’s remarkably low energy use.”
Dr. Pontzer and his team studied the daily energy expenditure of these great apes for two weeks and discovered an extremely low rate of energy use not previously observed in primates. The results seem to dovetail nicely with the slow growth and reproductive rates of orangutans. Dr. Pontzer speculated that this low metabolic rate might be an adaptation in response to severe food shortages in the orangutan’s native habitats. It is pointed out that the rain forests of Southeast Asia, Borneo, and Sumatra all go through periods where the availability of ripe fruit—the orangutan staple—drops drastically. The study suggests that orangutans have adapted over time to become the ultimate low-energy specialists, decreasing their level of activity, and thus, the number of calories required to function, to avoid starving during these forest cycles when food is scarce.
Once again, a discovery regarding a known great ape species may make an argument moot that is often proposed by skeptics to refute the existence of the sasquatch. These skeptics have a pretty standard arsenal of talking points which they use to refute the existence of the species. They claim that if the sasquatch were real it would have to spend nearly every waking minute eating in order to sustain its huge bulk. This study should surely give pause to those who subscribe to this theory. If the sasquatch is a type of great ape, it is not outlandish to think that they could share certain characteristics with their orangutan cousins; maybe this ability to slow down metabolism and limit energy output to the bare minimum is one of them. The ability to do so would be very valuable and could explain occasional sightings of the sasquatch in atypical locales, like the arid scrub land of West Texas, where food would be much more difficult to come by than regions where rainfall and vegetation are more plentiful.
Another typical argument used by skeptics is that if the sasquatch were real the species would be seen more often. The findings of Dr. Pontzer and his team might help explain the paucity of sightings as well. If the sasquatch does possess this low energy output trait then they probably are not moving around much at certain times of the year when food is harder to come by. The less an animal moves around, the less likely it is to be seen by humans. Also, it is implied in the study that the low-energy output seen in orangutans helps explain their slow rate of growth and low reproductive rate. If true, and if the sasquatch shares the same trait, then it is reasonable to assume that it has a low reproduction rate as well. This would keep the population of this rare animal low. Obviously, the fewer of them there are the less likely they are to be seen.
It seems the more we learn about the documented species of great apes, the less fantastic the possible existence of the sasquatch becomes.
This article was originally published at the Texas Cryptid Hunter blogsite. It has been modified for the TBRC website.
Read the ScienceDaily article here.
