A big ole male Orangutan close-up

OK, I wanted to post a photo of a gorilla to celebrate my new status of "gorilla" but unfortunately I don't have any - I haven't been able to do the Gorilla tracking tour yet - so I chose the next best thing. This photo WAS taken in the wild even though it was made at a "feeding station" and I have expressed my misgivings about these in a forum post as well as on my earlier Orangutan picture. However, getting this close to a huge alpha male Orangutan in the wild is really only possible at a feeding station as they tend to spend their time very high in the forest canopy. An interesting note - you can tell that this is not a zoo animal by the presence of several scars (pale spotting) on his face. The males get these during their fights for dominance for the females in a territory. Although Orangutans are well-known for being the most peaceable of the great apes, the males occasionally do engage in hours long fights which can leave both contestants exhausted and bloody. Many old alpha males like this one carry the scars which are visible on their face for the rest of their lives.