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Animal Themes
Endangered Animals Theme Unit
Mammals
 Orangutans

Orangutans
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.77

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    uncertain, unnoticed, intelligent, critical, illegal, hence, survival, practically, zookeepers, intruders, offspring, mainly, fate, childhood, rate, meaning
     content words:    Southeast Asia, Fu Manchu, Omaha Zoo, Before Fu Manchu, American Association

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Other Languages
     Spanish: Los Orangutanes

Orangutans   
1     Orangutans (or "orangs" for short) are the world's largest tree-dwelling animals! Living exclusively in Borneo and Sumatra of Southeast Asia, orangutans (meaning "man of the jungle" in Malay) belong to the great ape family whose members also include chimpanzees and gorillas.
 
2     Orangutans have long, reddish brown hair. They grow to about 4.5 feet tall and weigh up to 220 pounds. Orangutans' arms are longer than their legs; hence, orangutans can touch the ground with their hands even as they are in a stand-up position. Interestingly, orangutans' hands look just like our hands, and their feet look just like their hands. Since orangutans practically have four hands, they can swing from one tree to another using both their hands and feet! Orangutans spend most of their time in trees. When they do come down to the ground, they walk awkwardly.
 
3     Orangutans mainly feed on tropical fruits, such as mangoes and durians, with occasional intakes of leaves, insects, young birds, or other small animals. Because orangutans eat both plants and animals, they are omnivores.

Paragraphs 4 to 7:
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