What You Can Do In the Community
to Save Orangutans

Did you know orangutans are endangered because of hunting, the collection of animals for zoos, and the destruction of their habitat?
 


The orangutan (Pongo Pygaemus Abeli) is a species of great ape. They usually weigh about 80-180 pounds and have red hair all over their body. They are usually about four 1/2 feet tall. In Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia, orang means "person" and hutan means "forest," so orangutan means "person of the forest." Orangutans have incredibly strong long arms that help them sway from tree to tree in their home. The diet of orangutans consists mainly of fruits, plants and a few small vertebrates or birds. Recent studies show that now the orangutan eats more meat due to deforestation of fruit trees in Sumatra and Borneo.

Besides zoos, orangutans live on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia. According to scientists, they once lived in Java, Vietnam and China.

It is horrible that orangutans are becoming endangered, but there are things people can do to save them. They are endangered for many reasons. They are endangered because of hunting, the collection of animals for zoos, and destruction of their habitat.

Here are some things you can do:

  1. Don’t buy orangutan products since the chances are that orangutans have been killed for them.  This will also discourage poaching.
  2. Don‘t engage in pet trade of orangutans, or the orangutans will get killed by bad people and you will go to prison.
  3. Don’t visit circuses that use orangutans so that these creatures are left in the wild.
  4. Don’t buy products made of Sumatran or Bornean wood or plants so the orangutan’s habitat isn’t destroyed.
  5. Share this information with your friends to increase awareness of this endangered animal.

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Internet Resources

"Amazing animals: Orangutans".  BBC Children’s Zone.
7 March 2007.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/reallywild/amazing/orangutan.shtml>.

"Great Apes & Other Primates." Smithsonian National Zoological Park. 7 March 2007.
<http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Primates/Facts/
FactSheets/Orangutans/default.cfm>.

"Kids Special." Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.
7 March 2007.
<http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/site_mawas/
UK/FOR_KIDS/pag/Kids1.htm>.

"Orangutan." Kids Planet. 7 March 2007.
<http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/orangutan.html>.

"Orangutan." Wikipedia. 28 March 2007
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan>.

Susman, Randall L. "Orangutan." World Book Online Reference Center. 2007. 28 March 2007
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar404640>.

"Vanishing in the Wild: The Orangutan." Bagheera: In the Wild. 7 March 2007.
<http://bagheera.com/inthewild/van_anim_orang.htm>.

Images

Permission to use all of the photographs on this page of is granted  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License or photographs are in the public domain from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> (March, 2007).

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