The paper investigates a unique characteristic found within the development of male
orangutans whereby the reaching of complete
maturity and adulthood among a portion of orangutan males, both in the wild and captivity, is held off and slowed down by natural means. The paper explains how developmentally arrested
orangutans remain subadults, smaller and less physically mature than their fully grown adult male counterparts. It explores a number of studies which have been conducted to attempt to determine the reasons and causes for what is often called
bimaturism. The paper shows that because of the lower status of subadult males, female orangutans prefer to copulate with dominant, fully mature males. Often, in order to receive sexual gratification, subadult orangutans force unwilling females to have sex and the act of rape is extremely common among orangutans. The paper shows how a number of studies have been conducted in order to better understand the reasons for bimaturism and the effects of the trait on orangutan populations and the species as a whole.