The Orangutan is the second largest primate; only the gorilla is larger. Humans are however their only enemies. Orangutans are only founs on Borneo and Sumatra and due to increasing human popultaion, the orangutan's natural habitat has been destroyed to provide cultivated land and timber.

ORANG LIFE
    The average life span of the orang is about 35 years, however it can live up to 50 years in captivity. It is day active and solitary and feeds bascially on tropical fruits, leaves, shoots, bark, insects and eggs. The orang lives high above the ground in the forest canopy. With the exception of the male, it rarely descends to the ground level, prefering to swing through the trees. Females and young sleep in a simple 'nest', however the adult male generally sleeps alone on the ground. All orangs sleep on their side with thier arms cushioning their head.

The orangs does not form pairs; a dominant male usually has a large territory and mates with several femles living within. The female gives birth to a single offspring every three to six years. Because the female orang does not mate again until offspring is at least three years old, she may have time to raise two or three young in her lifetime as its sexual maturity age is 8-10 years.

THE PET TRADE and LOGGING
   A few years ago, a Taiwanese television show featured a baby orang as a pet. Suddenly, demand for orangs shot up. Female orangs are sometimes killed and their offspring captured for the pet trade, only for the young to die in captivity without their mothers. Up to 2,000 baby orangs were captured and shipped to Taiwan for the pet trade. Researchers estimate that over 6,000 mothers were killed and 4,000 captured babies died to supply the 2,000 pets, since only about one-third of those captured survive.

    Although Borneo and Sumatra are rich in oil and gas, the national government of Malaysia keeps 95 per cent of the revenue from oil and gas sales, therefore the local government must raise funds some other way. The local government raises revenue by logging the forests and by farming. Researchers have found that logging creates major problems for orangs, other than destroying older forest habitat. In fact, secondary forest grows rapidly after the older forest has been logged, and orangs are unable to adapt to this younger forest habitat. The bigger problem is that logging companies do not provide food for their workers. Hundreds of loggers are employed to cut down a particular area of forest, and they have to find food for themselves. The loggers, along with settlers who establish communities in the forest, hunt orangs, birds to eat. Logging roads make forests more accessible and therefore facilitates the movement of poachers into the forest.

The above mentioned intrusions into their lives have caused numbers of this shy animal to decrease alarmingly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra since 1940s. The orang's slow reproduction rate is not sufficient to replace the numbers killed and captured, so the species is in serious danger.

CONSERVATION
   Both Borneo and Sumatra have established reserves for orangutans and other imperiled forest species. The reserves are separated from each other by rivers, mountains, and settlements. However, Scientists do not know whether the reserves can support viable populations, or even how many orangs live in each reserve. Many orangs raised as pets suffer from disease, and they are not suited to living in the wild. Some can be taught to live in the wild, but rehabilitation is a long and expensive proces, especially since many never learn to live in the wild and must be kept in a center their whole lives. The Malaysian government does not have enough money to run these centers. Conservation groups from other countries are helping out.