Orangutan

The orangutan is the great ape of Southeast Asia. Its name means "man of the jungle" in Malay, an Austronesian language. Orangutans live only on the island of Borneo and in the northern corner of the island of Sumatra. The orangutan spends most of its time in trees, using its long arms and hook-shaped hands and feet for grasping branches and vines. Although it is illegal to kill, own, or export orangutans, poaching continues. Also, the orangutan habitat is rapidly diminishing as a result of large-scale logging and burning of forests. The massive forest fires on Sumatra and Borneo in 1997 and 1998 killed thousands of orangutans and destroyed the habitat of thousands more, endangering the survival of the species.