ORANGUTAN
			Phylum: Class: Order: Family: Species: Chordata Mammalia Primates Prongidae Pongo pygmaeus

The orangutan is the only great ape in Asia. It lives in tropical forests
in Borneo and Sumatra. It walks on all fours, with the hands either
clenched or flat on the ground but spends most of its time swinging through
the trees. It is a marvelous gymnast, holding branches equally well with
feet and hands. In captivity, it often walks erect. It has to keep the knee
locked and the leg straight in order to do this.

Orangutans sleep in treetop nests which they build each night. They do not
live in large social groupings like chimpanzees or gorillas. a female
sometimes travels with other females for a while, and a male may join this
group. But adult males are solitary most of the time. The young leave their
mothers and form adolescent bands when they reach about four years of age.

The male orangutan stands about 54 in. (135 cm) high when upright and
weighs as much as a man. The female weighs only half as much and is 46 in.
(117 cm) high at the most. The arms are one-and-a-half times as long as the
legs. Coarse, dark gray skin shows through the sparse, reddish hair in many
places. The male grows a mustache or beard, but the rest of the face is
hairless. The Borneo race is maroon tinted. The Sumatran race is lighter.
Numbers of both races have been declining since WWII. Deforestation has
affected the orangutan's distribution and so many have been shot or
captured for private zoos that they may soon become extinct in the wild.