Abstract
With their red hair and funny faces, orangutans have won a place in our hearts. But they stand out, even among apes, for other reasons too. A man-sized mass of orange hair, the creature looks too big to actually live in the trees. Yet there he is, crouching casually on a branch 50 feet in the air, lazily munching his leafy lunch. Then, placing his food on his head, he gracefully swings down a branch. They're called orangutans for a reason, and it isn't because they're orange (or tan). Orangutan means "person of the forest." Anyone who has watched these magnificent animals knows how uncannily human they sometimes seem. But are they really our cousins, or are they a uniquely designed, unrelated kind of creature?