Orangutans Nurse Offspring for 6.5 Years, Among Longest in Mammals

In the ancient canopy of Borneo's rainforests, orangutan mothers have long practiced a form of devotion measured not in months but in years — and now science has found the proof. Researchers using fecal proteomics have confirmed that wild orangutans nurse their young for at least six and a half years, one of the longest such bonds among all mammals. This extraordinary investment in each offspring explains both the remarkable survival of orangutan young and the heartbreaking fragility of the species as a whole, for a creature that gives so much to each life it brings forth cannot easily replace