Anthropologists who study orangutans, distant cousins of the human

Anthropologists who study orangutans, distant cousins of the human race, find in the animals’ behavior hints of how our earliest ancestors may have lived. It has long been accepted that primates originally dwelt in the treetops and only migrated to the ground as forests began to dwindle. While to a certain extent all primates except humans spend at least some time dwelling in trees, the orangutan hardly ever ventures to the forest floor.

Adult orangutans can grow as heavy as 330 pounds and live for decades, requiring copious amounts of fruit simply to stay alive. Thus, they become very jealous of the territory where they find their food. Compounding this territoriality are the breeding habits of orangutans, since females can only breed every few years and, like humans, give birth not to litters but single offspring. Consequently, orangutans are solitary, territorial animals who have difficulty foraging in any part of the forest where they were not raised.

Orangutans taken from poachers by customs agents undergo incredible hardship on their return to the wild. Incorrectly relocating a male orangutan is especially problematic, often ending in the animal’s death at the hands of a rival who sees not only his territory but also the females of his loosely knit community under threat from an outsider. While humans, like chimpanzees, are more gregarious and resourceful than orangutans, the latter provide anthropologists with useful information about the behavior of pre- hominid primates and how apelike behavior influenced our ancestors’ search for food and family beneath the forest’s canopy.

1. The primary purpose of this passage is to:

A) describe some behavioral and evolutionary characteristics of orangutans
B) analyze the reasons why early primates left their forest dwellings
C) illustrate the dangers posed to orangutans by poachers
D) show how orangutan behavior differs from that of other primates
E) criticize anthropologists who misinterpret orangutan behavior



2. The author of the passage discusses “orangutans taken from poachers” (lines 23) in order to:

A) stress the importance of preserving orangutans as a species
B) indicate the widespread practice of animal poaching
C) refute the theory that orangutans can live in a variety of environments
D) contrast the behavior of orangutans with that of other apes
E) emphasize the consequences of orangutan territoriality



3. The passage indicates that it is difficult to return orangutans to the wild for which of the following reasons?

I. The threat posed by newcomers to other orangutans' territory
II. The conflict between males over available females
III. The scarcity of available food in the orangutan’s environment

A) I only
B) I and II only
C) I and III only
D) II and III only
E) I, II, and III



4. Which of the following can be inferred about differences between the behavior of orangutans and that of other ape species?

A) While orangutans spend much of their time in the treetops, other apes live exclusively on the ground.
B) Orangutans and other types of apes are all sociable species, but orangutans are more likely to bond for life.
C) Apes such as chimpanzees rely less upon their size than the average orangutan does.
D) Orangutans spend less time in the company of other members of their species than do some other apes.
E) Because of their stringent territoriality, orangutans are less likely to elude capture by poachers than are other apes.


5. According to the author, anthropologists study the behavior of orangutans in order to

A. prevent orangutans from becoming the target of poaching
B. assist customs agents in the relocation of orangutans
C. analyze the causes and consequences of contemporary human behavior
D. prevent larger orangutans from eliminating their weaker rivals
E. better understand the factors that influenced human evolution


6. Which of the following are factors that the author indicates contribute to the orangutan's territoriality?

A. The lack of available food and the anti-social nature of orangutans
B. The orangutan's need for large quantities of food and the infrequency with which they mate
C. The threat posed by poachers and the orangutan's inability to protect itself from them
D. The difficulties that orangutans have when compelled to socialize with other ape species such as chimpanzees
E. The constant dangers that present themselves whenever one orangutan encounters another


7. It can be inferred from the passage that one development responsible for the evolution of distinct ape species was

A. early primates’ inability to survive in the forest
B. the shrinking of the available primitive forest
C. the growth of human and chimpanzee communities
D. the orangutan's eventual dominance of the treetops
E. the encroachment of other species into the primitive forest