Apes

The orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus) is restricted to the rainforests of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia and Malaysia. The orang-utan is the largest living arboreal mammal. It spends most of the daylight hours moving slowly and deliberately through the forest canopy in search of food. Sixty percent of its diet consists of fruit, and the remainder is composed of young leaves and shoots, tree bark, mineral-rich soil, and insects. Orang-utans are long-lived, with many individuals reaching 50–60 years of age in the wild. These large, chestnut-colored, long-haired apes are endangered because of habitat destruction and illegal capture for the wild-animal trade.

Even though Indonesia and Malaysia have more than 400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 sq km) of rainforest habitat remaining, the rapid rate of deforestation threatens the continued existence of the wild orang-utan population, which is now estimated at about 25,000 individuals. The Indonesian and Malaysian governments and CITES have banned the local and international trading of orang-utans, but they are still threatened by the illegal market. In order to meet the demand for these apes as pets around the world, poachers kill mother orang-utans to secure their young. The mortality rate of these captured orphans is extremely high, with fewer than 20% of those smuggled arriving alive at their final destination. Some hope for the species rests in a global effort to manage a captive propagation program in zoos, although this is far less preferable to conserving them in their wild habitat.