Orang Utan Baby in Malaysia
Orangutan babies being cared for at a conservation centre in Malaysia.
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.