Facts about Orangutan

Orangutans are one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. But as human populations increase, orangutan numbers are in decline. Orangutans once ranged throughout Indochina and south to Java. But today fragmented populations of two subspecies are restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

• • Probably no more than 50,000 Borneo orangutans and 6,650 Sumatra orangutans remain in the wild, half the number that existed 20 years ago. The way things are going, in another 50 years wild orangutans could be all but extinct.
  • Habitat loss is the number one threat to orangutans and additional threats, such as poaching for zoos and the pet trade, are directly related.
  • Slow reproduction, as well as an intimate dependence on their landscape, make orangutans highly vulnerable to disturbance and prone to extinction.
  • Most orangutans can probably escape fires, but die of starvation when they crowd into unfamiliar, less favorable
    forests. An estimated 2,000 orangutans died in Central Kalimantan peat forests as a result of the 1997 fires.
  • Primates come second to parrots as the most soughtafter animals for live trade. More than 500 Borneo orangutans are smuggled to Java and overseas each year and 40 percent of trapped animals die due
    to injury and stress.
  • Some 75% of orangutans live outside protected areas, help protect the habitat of the orangutan and many other globally important and endangered species.