• One in four of the world’s mammals

is threatened with extinction in the near

future

• One in eight birds

• One in five sharks

• One in four coniferous trees

• One in three amphibians

Orangutans are apes, along with gorillas,

chimpanzees and humans!

They have forward-facing eyes, large brains and

gripping hands

Male orangutans grow up to 1.5 metres tall, while

females are shorter at up to 1 metre

Orangutans have been known to live for as long

as 58 years

They use tools – branches to forage for food,

sticks to measure the depth of water, large

leaves as umbrellas…

Genetically, they are 97% the same

as humans

Orangutans are apes, along with gorillas,

chimpanzees and humans!

They have forward-facing eyes, large brains and

gripping hands

Male orangutans grow up to 1.5 metres tall, while

females are shorter at up to 1 metre

Orangutans have been known to live for as long

as 58 years

They use tools – branches to forage for food,

sticks to measure the depth of water, large

leaves as umbrellas…

Genetically, they are 97% the same

as humans

• Orangutans need rainforest to survive, but

the rainforest trees of Sumatra and Borneo

are being cut down for timber or burned to

make space for oil palm plantations and

roads

• In the past 30 years, more than 80% of their

forest home has disappeared

• The orangutan population has halved in

Borneo in the past 60 years and fallen by

80% in Sumatra in the past 75 years

• Today, there are fewer than 50,000

orangutans in the wild and they may be lost

forever within a few decades

On xxxx we’re going to

...could buy a notebook to collect

field data on orangutans

...could pay for one day’s petrol for the

boat to the orangutan research site

...could be used to plant a new tree

...could pay the weekly salary

of a wildlife warden

...could buy a GPS unit

...could pay for a one-hour helicopter patrol

over the wildlife sanctuary