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How do orangutans walk when they travel on the ground?

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An illustration of a female Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with long reddish-brown fur, hanging from tree branches with one arm extended upward and one leg hooked over a branch. A scale bar at the bottom shows lengths of 30 centimeters and 12 inches for size reference. — orangutan Female orangutans (*Pongo*) have the longest breeding interval of any mammal, giving birth on average once every eight years.

When traveling on the ground, orangutans are slow and do not use the "knuckle-walking" gait characteristic of African apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. Instead, they walk on their closed fists or extended palms.1

Because orangutans are primarily arboreal—spending more than 90 percent of their waking hours in the trees—they are not anatomically specialized for terrestrial locomotion. Consequently, their movement on the ground is deliberate, and a human can easily keep pace with them.1