More than a hundred experts gather at Houston zoo to try to save the orangutan

Aurora, an orphaned baby orangutan, plays at Houston Zoo Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Houston. Aurora, an orphaned baby orangutan, plays at Houston Zoo Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Houston. Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close More than a hundred experts gather at Houston zoo to try to save the orangutan 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

More than 100 of the world's top conservationists and orangutan experts have gathered at Houston Zoo in the world's first ever conservation summit for the intelligent and charismatic primates.

Orangutan's in the wild are in dire straits according to the zoo, with their rainforest habitats quickly being destroyed to make way for money-making palm oil plantations.

Houston's orangutans are some of the most popular characters at the zoo. Cheyenne, the oldest at 42, has been featured on Animal Planet because of her legendary maternal instincts which have seen her adopt and raise many orphaned orangutans.

Rudy, a younger male oragnutan has raised thousands of dollars for his fellow primates in the wild through his love of painting. Every year the zoo auctions off his work to raise money for conservation projects.

"Orangutans are losing their forest because of human development, if they lose their forest, they lose their home," said Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director at the Kinabatangan orangutan conservation programme in Saba, Malaysia. "The number of orangutans is declining. We estimate that we have in Borneo 50,000-60,000, but every year 2,000-3,000 are killed."

Ancrenaz is just one expert who flew into Houston especially for this first of a kind conservation summit.

To mark the occasion, a special enrichment day was held for Cheyenne and her current adoptee Aurora who is just one-and-a-half-years-old.

The two were recently reunited after Cheyenne had to undergo lengthy emergency treatment for a severe urinary tract infection which led to serious kidney problems. Doctors from neighboring Houston Medical Center were brought in to save the zoo favorite, who has since made a full recovery.

Brightly colored streamers adourned the orangutan's habitat, draped over the ellaborate wooden climbing frame the vivacious animals usually play on.

"(Enrichment) is very vital, oragutans in the wild are highly intelligent, very interactive animals that are constantly exploring their ecosystem," said Lynn Killam, assistant curator of primates at Houston Zoo. " We want captive animals to have the same life."

There are 217 oraguntans in accredited zoos across the U.S. and 40 more in non-accredited zoos. Experts say they play a vital role in conservation efforts by offering zoo keepers the chance to talk to the public about how they can help protect the animal's wild relatives.

Much of that education is about changing our shopping habits; campaigners want consumers to move towards buying only products that contain palm oil which is from sustainable sources, cutting demand for new deforestation. The oil is used is everything from soap to cookies, anything that requires a long shelf life.

"We're not asking people to boycott palm oil," said Miriam Swaffer from the union of concerned scientists. "The real action that people can take is to tell their favorite companies that they want zero-deforestation palm oil."

According to Swaffer their campaign efforts and those of concerned consumers are having an impact. High profile companies like Proctor and Gamble, Hershey's, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins have started using only zero-deforestation palm oil.

"It's incredibly exciting the change that has happened over the last 12 months," said Swaffer.

For others though the fight is far from over.

"Orangutans share over 97 percent of our genetic material," said assistant curator Lynn Killam, "They have complex thoughts, they solve problems, they have emotions just like we do and we're wiping them off the face of the earth."

The zoo sees the summit as an important next step for orangutan conservation efforts.

Back in the enclosure, Cheyenne and Aurora were oblivious to the problems faced by their wild cousins, happily demonstrating how closely orangutans bahavior resembles humans: Aurora climbing and swinging with the streamers while her adoptive Mom Cheyenne sat at the sidelines eating snacks.

To find out more about how to lobby companies to use zero-deforestation palm oil, go to www.ucsusa.org/palmoilaction.