ORANG UTAN PET TRADE

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Indonesian pet trade threatens lovable orang-utans with extinction

September 13, 2005

 

By Independent Syndication

 

London: As pets go, they don't come much more exotic than an orang-utan. With

their uncannily human facial expressions, orang-utans have long exerted a

fascination over people.

 

The Hollywood comedy Every Which Way But Loose featured Clint Eastwood as the

unlikely owner of a pet orang-utan. But wildlife organisations are warning that

the illegal pet trade is threatening orang-utans - one of the last surviving

species of the great apes, closest relatives of humans - with extinction in the

wild.

 

A study by Traffic, a non-government organisation which monitors trade in

wildlife, found that 200 to 500 orang-utans were traded as pets each year from

the Indonesian part of Borneo.

 

Baby orang-utans are a favourite choice as a pet in Indonesia. They are often

dressed in clothes, and eat the same food as the family.

But the story of how they are taken from the wild is gruesome, says Julia Ng, a

Traffic resear-cher in the orang-utan trade.

 

" One villager told me he was with a group of villagers when they saw a mother

orang-utan with her baby in the trees. He shot the mother immediately and she

came crashing down through the trees. He knew she would attack them if he didn't

kill her immediately, so he took a long knife, went straight to her and cut her

head off. "

 

Most mothers are killed when baby orang-utans are taken. By the time orang-utans

reach the illegal pet shops of Indonesian cities on the island of Java, they can

fetch up to £220.

 

 

The only surviving great ape outside Africa, the orang-utan is found only on the

two islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The Sumatran orang-utan is critically

endangered, with only 7 000 left in the wild. Its numbers may have been further

reduced by the tsunami.

 

With as many as 40 000 left in the wild, the Bornean orang-utan is better off.

But wildlife organisations, including Traffic and the conservation charity WWF,

are warning that the illegal pet trade is threatening to cut that population

drastically.

 

Borneo is one of the last tropical wildernesses. But in recent years, these

jungles have come under sustained assault. Forests have been cleared for timber.

Other areas have been cleared for palm oil plantations and other crops. Often

the planters start forest fires to clear areas.

 

Private trading in orang-utans is outlawed. Yet large numbers of them have

appeared in safari parks in Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.

 

Under the international Cites treaty, trade in orang-utans is forbidden except

for conservation purposes. But there is no paperwork for the orang-utans in the

Thai, Cambodian and Malaysian safari parks, and there are suspicions they have

been illegally hunted. - Independent Syndication

 

 

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