The orangutans is a species of great apes. The name orangutan is also written as “orang-utan” or “orang utan”. It is derived from two Malay and Indonesian word “orang” which means person and “hutan” which means forest or jungle. So the name orangutan means ‘person of the jungle’.

Orangutans can be found in Sumatra and Borneo (both in the Indonesian and the Malay part of the island). The Sumatran species of orangutans are now critically endangered and the Borneon species is endangered. It is reported that total number of the Bornean species is estimated to be less than 14% of what it was in the recent past (from around 10,000 years ago until the middle of the twentieth century) and this sharp decline has occurred mostly over the past few decades due to human activities and development.

Major conservation centres in Indonesia include those at Tanjung Puting National Park and Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, Kutai in East Kalimantan, Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, and Bukit Lawang in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the border of Aceh and North Sumatra.

There is also the Borneo Orangutan Survival center in Central Borneo, 25 minutes out of the capital city of the province, Palangkaraya, where tourists can see them being in rehabilitation programs. BOS sponsors the reintroduction programs for confiscated orangutans at the Wanariset Station near Balikpapan and the Nyaru Menteng station near Palangkaraya, both on the island of Borneo.

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