Small Orangutan, Big Problem

Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo is using a tiny symbol of hope to highlight a large-scale, increasingly dire situation.
Zoo officials introduced a newborn female Borean orangutan, a highly endangered species, to the public. Born Oct. 6 at Brookfield and weighing about 5 pounds, the little orangutan, who so far is unnamed, is only the second birth of an orangutan expected in a North American zoo this year. The new orangutan is on exhibit in the zoo’s Tropic World.
On October 23, she clung to her mother’s side, looking healthy and contented. The outlook for the species is far more foreboding.
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