Write or e-mail the manufacturers of your favourite foods. Ask if they use palm oil and if so, whether it is sourced from certified sustainable sources.

What else can you do?

• Tell your local Member of Parliament what your stance is on palm oil labelling.
• Choose foods that are Palm oil free or contain sustainably produced Palm oil.
• Create your own Conservation Mashup and share it with your friends to spread the word about Palm oil and Orang-utans.

It may seem that orang-utans live the life - swinging effortlessly among the top branches of trees, hanging out in nests, eating sweet fruit and occasionally gathering together at an old fig tree.

Unfortunately, this life of luxury is far from the truth and the threats facing orang-utans could mean these guys, the largest tree-dwelling mammals in the world, disappear from the wild sooner than we realise.

The fruit doesn't gather itself either and orang-utans have to spend more than 8 hours a day searching for it on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra before building a nest high in the canopy to sleep in for the night.

• The word Orang-utan means 'person of the forest'.
• These large gentle apes share 97% of our DNA making them one of our closest relatives.
• They are highly intelligent, adept at tool use and great problem solvers.
• Like us each Orang-utan has unique facial features and personalities.
• Unlike us, they spend most of their lives high up in trees.
• Orang-utans are the largest tree-dwelling animals in the world.
• Adult males are up to 10 times stronger than an adult human.
• Adult males have flatter faces and big cheeks to help project their loud vocal calls through dense jungle.

The products you buy could be threatening the remaining orangutan populations.

A common ingredient in Australian food and household products, called palm oil, is unsustainably farmed throughout orang-utan habitat.

As forests are wiped out to make way for more palm oil farms orang-utans are being pushed closer to extinction.

Baby Orang-utans are still taken from their mothers and their forest habitats to be sold as pets.

At our Zoos...

• Kiani - Melbourne Zoo
  
• Santan - Melbourne Zoo
  
• Mai - Melbourne Zoo
  
• Gabby - Melbourne Zoo
  
• Menyaru - Melbourne Zoo
  
• Dewi - Melbourne Zoo
  

In the Wild...

• Borneo - Malaysia
  
• Sumatra - Indonesia