Research reveals mind-boggling decline in Orangutan's population
A new research has revealed that the number of Orangutans, one the world's endangered animals, killed since 1999 in Borneo is over 100,000. This is as result of human activities including deforestation, driven by logging, oil palm, mining and paper mills.
The startling figure was arrived at following a 16 year survey of the Borneo island. Published in the journal Current Biology, it also revealed that areas with forestation still experience animals disappearing. Lead researcher Maria Voigt of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, believes the disappearance are as a result of the animals being slaughtered.
Dr Voigt and her colleagues are of the opinion that the animals are being targeted by hunters and are being killed in retaliation for crop-raiding.
A member of the team, Prof Serge Wich, told BBC science: "We didn't expect the losses to be so large in standing forest, so these studies confirm that hunting is a major issue."
Prof Wich, who is from Liverpool John Moores University, UK added "Just last week, we had a report of an orangutan that had 130 pellets in its body, after being shot at in Borneo. It's shocking and it's unnecessary. Orangutans might eat farmers' fruit, but they are not dangerous."
Over the next 35 years, the researchers are predicting that over 45,000 orangutans could die. Their research also showed that natural resources were still being exploited in Borneo "at an unsustainable rate"They are urging Malaysian and Indonesian government to help prevent this by calling against the deliberate act of targeting the apes.
The published figures on orangutan's decline, has made conservationists to underscore that using patches for orangutan's habitat brings a glimmer of hope towards their preservation. The first pictures of the animals using man-made "forest canopy bridges" was released by a team from Chester Zoo in the UK. The forest canopy bridge was constructed from tough cargo-strapping that the zoo uses to make swings and bridges in orangutan enclosures.
The zoo's field conservation manager, Catherine Barton, explained that the zoo had set out to reconnect habitats fragmented by oil palm plantations, roads and drainage channels and are working with the charity Hutan in Malaysia to achieve this.
"To see the animals start to use these bridges and to reconnect across this fragmented habitat is a really positive sign," said Ms Barton. "But it's a short-term solution."
In the long-term, she added, replanting forests and making space for the great apes is the intended plan.
But as Prof Wich noted, his team's survey has confirmed protecting the animals' forest habitat is not enough. "We have to protect the animals, so we don't end up with forest that looks fine, but has no orangutans."
BBC Science & Environment
The startling figure was arrived at following a 16 year survey of the Borneo island. Published in the journal Current Biology, it also revealed that areas with forestation still experience animals disappearing. Lead researcher Maria Voigt of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, believes the disappearance are as a result of the animals being slaughtered.
Dr Voigt and her colleagues are of the opinion that the animals are being targeted by hunters and are being killed in retaliation for crop-raiding.
A member of the team, Prof Serge Wich, told BBC science: "We didn't expect the losses to be so large in standing forest, so these studies confirm that hunting is a major issue."
Prof Wich, who is from Liverpool John Moores University, UK added "Just last week, we had a report of an orangutan that had 130 pellets in its body, after being shot at in Borneo. It's shocking and it's unnecessary. Orangutans might eat farmers' fruit, but they are not dangerous."
Over the next 35 years, the researchers are predicting that over 45,000 orangutans could die. Their research also showed that natural resources were still being exploited in Borneo "at an unsustainable rate"They are urging Malaysian and Indonesian government to help prevent this by calling against the deliberate act of targeting the apes.
The published figures on orangutan's decline, has made conservationists to underscore that using patches for orangutan's habitat brings a glimmer of hope towards their preservation. The first pictures of the animals using man-made "forest canopy bridges" was released by a team from Chester Zoo in the UK. The forest canopy bridge was constructed from tough cargo-strapping that the zoo uses to make swings and bridges in orangutan enclosures.
The zoo's field conservation manager, Catherine Barton, explained that the zoo had set out to reconnect habitats fragmented by oil palm plantations, roads and drainage channels and are working with the charity Hutan in Malaysia to achieve this.
"To see the animals start to use these bridges and to reconnect across this fragmented habitat is a really positive sign," said Ms Barton. "But it's a short-term solution."
In the long-term, she added, replanting forests and making space for the great apes is the intended plan.
But as Prof Wich noted, his team's survey has confirmed protecting the animals' forest habitat is not enough. "We have to protect the animals, so we don't end up with forest that looks fine, but has no orangutans."
BBC Science & Environment
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