orangutans and BOS Jakarta Post

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Three articles about orangutans and the work of BOS (Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation):http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040203.Q01http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040203.Q02http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040206.G03Twice as many orangutans, but future just as bleak Features - February 03, 2004Jacqueline Mackenzie, Contributor, JakartaThe most detailed count of wild orangutans in the last decade has found that there are between 50,000 and 60,000 orangutans left in the tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo, twice as many as had been estimated in recent years.However, a conference of international orangutan experts at the Schmutzer Primate Center in Jakarta recently has also found that the species has declined by a third in the past decade, and will become extinct in around two decades, if nothing is done to halt the trend."New survey data and computer modeling techniques revealed several new populations of orangutans in Central and western Kalimantan. It's clear that we have greatly underestimated the numbers in Borneo," said Dr.

Willie Smits, Chairman of Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation, said to be the world's largest primate conservation project."But this is not great news, because the rate of decline of the species through habitat destruction and poaching is just as horrendous. If this continues, in 20 years there will be no orangutans left in the wild."The conference also heard about recent efforts by Indonesian authorities to stop poaching, with seven prosecutions of illegal traders in the last six months.However, these prosecutions have made little impact on the illegal trade, according to Dr. Smits. He estimates a thousand infant orangutans, whose mothers are shot in order to capture them, were smuggled into countries such as Thailand and Malaysia in 2003."You have to remember that only 50 percent of the babies survive the shooting of the mother," said Dr. Smits."We have so many with bullets in the eyes and

brains and near the heart, and they are only the survivors. Many others die the moment the mother is beheaded, as sometimes the babies get their arms and hands cut off too."Many more babies then die on the roads to the big cities, as the wrong diet gives them diarrhea and yet others die from stress. So each of the thousand represents two more thousand orangutans that never made it to trade.By Dr. Smit's calculation, a total of 3,000 babies and 3,000 mothers - 4,500 females - are lost from the remaining orangutan population each year."Even if you had 200,000 orangutans, you're still losing them very, very fast. The only thing the extra numbers do say is that it is not yet too late to save them.""Oil palm plantations are now vigorously expanding all over Borneo, into the lowland rain forests which are orangutan habitat," said Dr. Smits."The plantations create small pockets of rain forest where the orangutans

are starving, opening the way for hunters. They eat the meat of the orangutan, they shoot them to sell the skulls to stupid tourists, they sell the baby orangutans in international trade."But the main cause of habitat destruction continues to be illegal logging, which has increased since the push for local autonomy in recent years."More than half of all the wood cut in Indonesia is illegal, there is no control," said Dr. Smits."The concessions, that try to protect their own timber, they are now disappearing also and the people go freely wherever they want. It's really like the wild west."The fact that the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is now the world's largest primate conservation project is not something that makes Dr. Smits proud."I would only be proud if I could close down these rehabilitation centers, if there was no need to take in more babies. The centers mean we're failing to save the

wild orangutans."But Dr. Smits does not believe the situation is hopeless. He sees the recent prosecution of illegal traders as an indicator that change is taking place."The fact that illegal traders are trying to campaign against the current enforcement of the law is a good indication that we must be getting deep into the comfort zone of some people," he said.He also gauges his effectiveness according to the number of death threats he receives, and in the past month he's received two hundred."My family has moved twice already because of the terror against us -- our effectiveness means we are bound to have huge fights coming up," he said."But we should not run away from the conflict. It's the eleventh hour for this great ape species, and if I did not believe it could be saved, I would not be doing the things I do now."http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040203.Q02We can learn a lot from 'Pongo' familyFeatures - February 03, 2004Just as Asia's only great ape faces its greatest crisis, scientists have released important new findings on the species.The latest research has found that the major differences in appearance, behavior and genetics of orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo warrant their reclassification as separate species -- the Bornean Pongo pygmaeus and the Sumatran Pongo abellii.Previously they were regarded as subspecies of the same species."Sumatran orangutan females give birth, on average, once every nine years, while females in eastern Borneo average six years,

with western Borneo females somewhere in between," said Carel van Schaik, a professor of biological anthropology at Duke University in the United States."The shorter birth-interval for eastern Borneo is probably as a result of them having a slightly higher adult mortality. This is probably due to the fact that orangutans in eastern Borneo have harsher climatic conditions to deal with. They have less fruit and long periods of time when there are only leaves to eat," said Professor van Schaik."If you go into the leaf-eating business, there are risks that you'll poison yourself," he addedAs well, scientists now regard Bornean orangutans as forming three separate subspecies, with distinct differences even within subspecies in different areas."Within Borneo there are all these big rivers which separate them and they are clearly separate populations. They are biologically different, and what is more for me as an

anthropologist, is that we see all kinds of cultural differences between orangutan populations."One example is how different populations perform their "kiss-squeak", the distress signal orangutans send to each other or to a predator."As researchers recording orangutan behavior in the forest canopy, we used to just write down 'kiss-squeak', but we've just recently realized 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 it's a single leaf and sometimes they strip a whole bunch of leaves. Then they stretch out their hand and rain the leaves down on you.It enhances the message that this animal is not a happy puppy, right?""Now this shows that the animals are incredibly 'copying-oriented'. Like us, they have role models that they emulate

and they say 'OK this is how one does it here, I'll do it that way too.'"Professor van Schaik believes studying such behavioral differences will help us understand the evolution of human culture and intelligence."We are just another great ape, and yet we are so vastly different from the others. What caused that? The best way to look at that, because our ancestors are gone of course, is to look at all the variability among the great apes we still have."What causes that variability, what brings all that out in the great apes? (If we answer those questions) maybe we can extrapolate from that toward humans. We might learn a lot about our own history by studying the orangutans, but we need a lot of populations. You can't study that in one population. So even if by some miracle one population is saved in perpetuity, we will still lose that opportunity to study our own past."Professor van Schaik says the orangutan

faces what he calls, 'the redwood problem', based on President Reagan's comment 'If you've seen one redwood you've seen them all.'"If you apply that to the orangutans you think - I've looked at one orangutan, now I know them all. It turns out you don't know them at all because orangutans show incredible variability within and across their subspecies," said Professor van Schaik.But these new classifications could soon be meaningless as species and subspecies alike near extinction. There are fewer than seven thousand Sumatran orangutan left, and the subspecies in East Kalimantan, the black orangutan, has only a few fragmented populations remaining."Just imagine that you have to tell children," said Professor van Schaik, "'this is the orangutan, it used to live in these forests. People sort of figured out what they did but they didn't quite learn everything there was to learn before they went extinct. And now you'll

have to live in a world without them.'""If we let a species become extinct that's so intelligent, so genetically close to us, so charismatic, then what do the buffaloes have to hope for, what do the birds have to hope for?" said Dr Willie Smits, Chairman of Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation."And eventually that whole net is going to collapse - what do we humans have to hope for ourselves? So the orangutan are a big warning flag for what is so us to come."-- Jacqueline Mackenziehttp://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040206.G03Animal rescue center lacks funds, relies heavily on donationsCity News - February 06, 2004Theresia

Sufa, The Jakarta Post, BogorFinancial constraints and the low professionalism of staff are only some of the major problems faced by the Cikananga Animal Rescue Center in Sukabumi, West Java.Head of the West Java Natural Resources Conservation Office (BKSDA), Suyatno Sukendar, told the press here on Wednesday that the rescue center needed around Rp 40 million (US$4,762) per month to feed around 1,400 animals at the center."To fulfill the monthly needs of the animals, we have been relying on donations from sponsors and animal lovers. We have also received financial assistance from Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands," he said."The government can't afford to provide any more for us. The routine budget we get at the moment is only enough to cover our operational costs, particularly law enforcement and the seizure of wild animals kept by individuals as pets."There are around 1,400 animals at the rescue

center comprising primates and other mammals, reptiles and birds. Most of them were confiscated from their owners during operations between 2000 and November 2003, but some were handed over voluntarily."Our biggest expense is providing food for the carnivores, including four lions, a Sumatran tiger, four panthers, 20 crocodiles and three wild cats," Suyatno said."Everyday, except Sundays, officers at the rescue center must buy five goats to feed them," he said, adding that each animal gets an average of four kilograms of meat.The officers must also buy a truck full of fruit every two days to feed the primates and the birds.However, the expense could be reduced if some animals were to be released back into their native habitats in national parks or conservation centers.Besides the financial constraints, the officers at the rescue center also suffer from a lack of professional training."The

officers must increase their knowledge of various species. Wild animals are completely different from cattle. We can easily study goats because we can breed them but it's difficult to handle rhinos, for instance, because we rarely see their behavior. Our knowledge of wild animals is very limited," Suyatno said.The West Java conservation office hopes that there will be no more wild or endangered animals being kept by individuals within five years.Michelle DesiletsDirectorBorneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UKBuckinghamshire, England"Primates Helping Primates"www.savetheorangutan.org.ukwww.savetheorangutan.com

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