Orangutans: Wizards of the Rainforest - Softcover

Praise for the previous edition:
"A fascinating firsthand account of the behavior and intelligence of orangutans, Russon's book is also an account of the successes, failures, and politics of orangutan rehabilitation in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra... The book is lavishly illustrated with full color photographs."
- Choice

The only great apes found in Asia, these arboreal wizards are by nature elusive and solitary, and inhabit nearly inaccessible tropical rainforests. The tragedy is that orangutans are almost extinct, surviving in the wild only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra where human influx is rapidly appropriating their habitat.

Based on fifteen years of research, this extraordinary and definitive book focuses on orangutan intelligence and behavior.

This book includes:

• A scientific history of orangutans
• Detailed descriptions of orangutans and their natural habitat
• Astonishing behavior patterns
• Rehabilitation operations at Camp Leakey and Wanariset
• The complex politics of orangutan rescue work
• Results of orangutans released back into the forest
• Updated resources
• What the future holds for these primates.

With one hundred color photographs taken by the author during her visits to the rainforests, Orangutans is an absorbing and instructive look at the unusual world of orangutans.

Anne E. Russon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto. She has been studying intelligence and learning in orangutans in Indonesian Borneo since 1989. She co-edited a book on great ape intelligence, Reading into Thought: The Minds of the Great Apes.