Orangutans are the largest primate in Asia, excepting humans, of course.
Once they numbered in hundreds of thousands, ranging throughout China and South East Asia. This century and particularly in the last 20 years their population has declined drammatically. Before 1997 estimates of the population fluctuated around 25,000 individuals, found only in the rainforests of Borneo and small pockets of Sumatra. In 1997 fires engulfed the forests of Indonesia and many Orangutans were lost. In 1998 the same disaster struck again, and hundreds more were killed, some suggest the population has been struck in half by this continuous destruction.