Orangutans at the Houston Zoo

Orangutans, native to the southeast asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, are now highly endangered. These solitary creatures live on a diet consisting mainly of fruit. While visiting the Houston Zoo last week, I took these pictures of two of the resident orangutans, Rudi and Pumpkin.

It was pretty hot out when I took these pictures, so the orangutans were not interested in anything other than relaxation.

This is Rudi Valentino, a 40 year old male orangutan who loves to paint.

Read about Rudi's paintings here in the Houston Chronicle

What's going on in that big brain of yours?

After about two years of age, orangutans in the wild live a life of seclusion, mainly because of food scarcity.

'Orang' means “person” in Malay, and 'utan' is derived from hutan, which means “forest”, or "Forest Person" when combined.

A large male orangutan's arms can span up to 8 feet across from fingertip to fingertip, which is much wider than they are tall.

Bornean and Sumatran orangutans have been known to breed together while in captivity producing viable young.

Rudi looked up at me with his big soulful eyes several times while I was taking his picture. You can't help but feel a small connection to the animal when they look right at you.

This is Pumpkin, a 32 year old male Bornean orangutan.

Pumpkin

There will come a day when these beautiful creatures can no longer exist in the wild do to over-farming of their native habitats.

"The culprit in this case of encroaching extinction isn't poaching, but palm oil, a product found in everything from cupcakes to deodorant."

"Some of the corporations already using zero-deforestation palm oil are Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelez International (the maker of Oreos, Ritz crackers and Nutter Butter cookies) and L'Oreal." SOURCE: Houston Chronicle: Houston orangutans are ambassadors for their endangered cousins

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All of these images were captured using a Nikon D850 with a variety of different lenses(200-500mm, 24-70mm, and 50mm prime lens)

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