Orangutan babies nurse until they are 6 years old. Males stay near their mothers for a few years longer, but females will stay until they are in their teens and ready to have their own babies. Females give birth only once every 8 years. Because of this low birth rate, orangutan populations are slow to recover from disturbance. They are among the most critically endangered of the great apes because of poaching and habitat loss due to mechanized logging. It is expected they will be extinct in the wild within ten years.