Look at these photos of infant orangutans. What are the first thoughts that come into your head?     My guess is that your reaction is something like, “So cute!” or “I want to cuddle them!” Maybe you’re even thinking, “I want one!” Unfortunately, the charms that orangutans and other primates possess push too many people to take their instinctual reactions to extremes. Because monkeys and apes are so similar to humans and are quite [...]

The Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine (OCCQ) in Borneo is a temporary home to hundreds of young orphaned orangutans building up the skills and confidence they need to be released back into the wild. But the OCCQ is home to a small handful of fully-grown adult male orangutans as well. One of these big guys is Montana, a strikingly benevolent and quick-witted orangutan with a painful past and a complicated future. Adult male orangutans are [...]

I was in the second grade when I learned that all of our fellow great apes were endangered, and I could still point out the shelf in my elementary school library where I pored over books about orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. I remember seeing photos and watching nature films about Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas and her famous research station, Camp Leakey, established deep in the tropical forest of Borneo in 1971. As a child [...]