FOXSYLVANIA

– – Orangutans aren’t exactly balls of fire but rather simian slackers; they can sleep for twelve hours a day, and then nap for several hours more!  In fact, orangutans use less energy, pound-for-pound, than any animal except for the tree sloth.   This is not necessarily a bad thing…

It turns out that orangutans are not lazy, but simply energy-efficient.  In the wild, orangutans live mainly off fruit, which can be hard to come by in their forest habitat for several months of the year.  Those who can survive on the least food for the longest therefore have the best chance of surviving and reproducing.  Although a large male orangutan can weigh in at over 250 pounds, a new study in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that such an animal consumes less than 2,000 calories a day, which is 20% less than a typical human male.

This can be considered an evolutionary adaptation to deal with their habitat, with sleep being a low-energy state…