Look at that hair!

New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo released pictures this week of Menari, a female orangutan born at the zoo July 10.

Menari is being hand-raised, and is the first orangutan born at the zoo since 1996. She is a Sumatran orangutan, which is the rarer of the two orangutan species. The slightly lager Bornean orangutan is listed as endangered, while the Sumatran orangutan is listed as critically endangered.

Less than 8,000 Sumatran orangutans are believed to survive in the wild, and they are all found in rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Looking at little Menari, it’s hard to fathom how we could let such cute creatures disappear from our planet.

- Staff Writer Bryan Dean

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