orangutan extinction-2 articles

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/25/1074965436614.html

 

Poachers drive orang-utans to extinction

By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta

January 26, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number of orang-utans has declined by a third in the past 10 years and the

species could become extinct in two decades if nothing is done to save the great

ape, a conference in Jakarta has concluded.

 

However, the most detailed count of wild orang-utans in the past decade has

found between 50,000 and 60,000 in the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo,

twice as many as had previously been estimated.

 

Aerial and ground counts of the forest-canopy nests the apes build each day have

revealed several new populations in central and west Kalimantan.

 

" It's clear that we have made a big underestimate of the numbers in Borneo, "

said Willie Smits, head of the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation, the

world's largest great ape preservation project. " But this is not great news if

you look at the percentage of orang-utan habitat being lost every year and the

numbers still being poached and killed. If this continues, in 20 years there

will be no orang-utans left in the wild. "

 

Seven prosecutions of illegal traders by Indonesian authorities in the past six

months had done little to slow smuggling operations, Dr Smits said. = 4) { b

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About a thousand infant orang-utans - their mothers are usually shot so the

babies can be sold as pets - were smuggled abroad last year. " Only 50 per cent

of babies survive the shooting of the mother and many more die on the roads to

the big cities, " Dr Smits said.

 

" So each of the thousand represent two more orang-utans that never made it to

trade. "

 

A boom in palm oil plantations has added to the destruction of the orang-utans'

habitat, already affected by rampant illegal logging and forest fires.

 

Carel van Schaik, professor of biological anthropology at Duke University in the

US, said studying the evolution of their behaviour " will help us understand the

evolution of human culture and intelligence to get a handle on why one great

ape, namely humans, became such a completely different species " .

 

" But you can't study that in one population, " he said. " You need a lot of

different populations. So even if, by some miracle, one orang-utan population

will be saved in perpetuity, we will still lose that opportunity to study our

own past if we don't save all the sub-species. "

 

 

 

 

Counts finds orang-utans still endangered

 

By Matthew Moore

Indonesia Correspondent

Jakarta

January 26, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The threatened orang-utan.

Picture: Supplied

 

 

The most detailed count of wild orang-utans in the past decade has found

50,000-60,000 of the great apes left on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and

Borneo - twice as many as thought.

 

But a conference of orang-utan experts in Jakarta has concluded the species has

declined by a third in the past decade and will become extinct in about two

decades if nothing is done to halt the trend.

 

Aerial and ground counts of the forest canopy nests the apes build afresh each

day have revealed several new populations in central and west Kalimantan.

 

" It's clear that we have made a big underestimate of the numbers in Borneo, "

said Willie Smits, head of the world's largest great ape preservation project

called BOS (Borneo Orang-utan Survival) Foundation .

 

" But this is not great news if you look at the percentage of orang-utan habitat

being lost every year and the numbers still being poached and killed. If this

continues, in 20 years there will be no orang-utans left in the wild. "

 

 

The conference heard that seven prosecutions of illegal traders in the past six

months had done little to slow smuggling operations. = 4) { b = 1; } else

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= 0; } if (b == 1) { var toolkit = java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(); var

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greater = 1; } else if (b == 2) { if (document.body.clientWidth >= 772)

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" ); } } // -->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Smits estimates 1000 infant orang-utans, whose mothers were shot so the

babies could be caught for sale as pets, were smuggled into countries including

Thailand and Malaysia in 2003 .

 

" You have to remember that only 50 per cent of the babies survive the shooting

of the mother, and many more die on the roads to the big cities. So each of the

1000 represents two more orang-utans that never made it to trade, " Dr Smits

said.

 

" That means 3000 babies lost and 3000 mothers - 4500 females - lost from the

remaining orang-utan population each year. "

 

A boom in palm oil plantations has added to the destruction of orang-utan

habitat already caused by rampant illegal logging and continuing forest fires.

" The plantations create small pockets of rainforest where the orang-utans are

starving, opening the way for hunters, " Dr Smits said.

 

As the only great apes in Asia face their greatest crisis, scientists have found

major differences in the appearance, behaviour and genetics of orang-utans in

Sumatra and Borneo, which warrant them being reclassified as separate species -

the Bornean Pongo pygmaeus and the Sumatran Pongo abellii, rather than as

subspecies of the same species.

 

As well, scientists now regard the Bornean apes as comprising three subspecies

with cultural differences. Carel van Schaik, professor of biological

anthropology at Duke University, said an example of the cultural differences was

how different populations performed their " kiss-squeak " - the distress signal

they send to each other or to a predator.

 

" We've just recently realised that in some places they kiss-squeak on the flat

of their hand, to enhance the sound, while in other places they shape their hand

like a trumpet and turn it as they squeak; in other places they kiss on leaves -

but sometimes a single leaf and sometimes they strip a whole bunch of leaves

from a stem, " Professor van Schaik said.

 

Studying the evolution of such behaviour would help scientists understand the

evolution of human culture and intelligence, " to get a handle on why one great

ape, namely humans, became such a completely different species.

 

" But you can't study that in one population: you need a lot of different

populations. "

 

 

 

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