The orangutans’ misfortune was not only that they made their home in trees that constitute some of the most valuable timber in the world. As they became more endangered–by 2002 their numbers in the wild had dwindled to fewer than 27,000–their value as exotic pets increased. The Nature Conservancy estimated that poachers were killing more than 1,000 orangutan mothers per year, stealing their babies to sell on the black market. The apes were doomed: they breed slowly, starting to procreate at the age of 16 or 17 and giving birth to one baby every eight years. All too human, you might think. Ironic, then, that human avarice killed the last of one of our closest living cousins.
