Orangutan
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Can you imagine being an enormous 80-160 pound, bright, red-haired great ape trying to hide from your enemies? Well, that's the job of an orangutan. Lucky for the orangutan, it lives in the rain forest where it's easy to hide in Borneo, Indonesia and Sumatra. While roaming the forest, the orangutan looks for fruit, leaves and insects to eat.
Did you know that "orang" and "utan" are the Malay words for "man" and "jungle"? The literal meaning of the name, therefore, is "man of the jungle." Centuries ago orangutans were much larger than they are today. Fossil remains show that a species of giant orangutan existed in China 500,000 years ago.
Orangutans are endangered for several different reasons. The first reason is poachers are killing the orangutans. The second reason is habitat loss. People want more room to build houses and other buildings. Another reason is an orangutan only has one baby every 7-8 years so the numbers lost to poachers can't be replaced. The Indonesian government has started to establish preserves to protect orangutans.