Man's nearest relative going the way of the dodo

Man's nearest relative going the way of the dodo

By William Furney

JAKARTA (JP): There have been increasing reports in the media
concerning the fate of man's nearest relative, the orangutan.
Most of the reports center on the demise of the tree-dwelling
creature as forest fires and forest conversion to oil palm
plantations continue to eat into its natural habitat.

Little seems to have been done to correct the fate of the
primate which, by all accounts, is fast heading toward
extinction.

A recently completed survey by the World Wide Fund for Nature
has reportedly caused environmentalists to call for the orangutan
to be classified as critically endangered. The report says that
the orangutan population has fallen by about 1,000 per year in
Sumatra since 1998 due to logging and forest conversion.

The orangutan population in Sumatra is now estimated at 5,500.

It is not taking into consideration Kalimantan, the only other
part of Indonesia they live in. It is more difficult to estimate
the population there due to the impenetrability of the island of
Borneo. Scientists, however, believe that the death rate there is
higher as Borneo was affected by worse forest fires than Sumatra.

One activity which has not been getting as much coverage in
the reports is the illegal trade in orangutans, which continues
to flourish amid tales of corruption.

"Critically endangered" means precious little to the people
who deal in orangutans, or the officials who continue to accept
bribes to aid in the passage of the creatures.

Pramuka bird market in Central Jakarta is one place where
young orangutans can be found for sale.

Last weekend there was the usual variety of birds on offer at
this market, including the rare cendrawasih (bird of paradise)
from Irian Jaya. Delving deeper into the bird market complex
reveals monkeys, lizards, bats, bears, snakes and otters for
sale.

If a prospective buyer at the market is deemed by the sellers
to be trustworthy and rich enough and expresses an interest in
acquiring more exotic and rare animals, there is a slew of
sellers who will take you to certain areas in the complex where
you can view the animals.

When I indicated that I was interested in monkeys and wanted
to see what else was on offer, one man approached me and said
that if I kept quiet he would show me the orangutans he had for
sale.

Assuring him of my discretion, I followed him out of the
market area to his house which was by a canal and opposite a
mosque.

The man told me to wait on a bench outside his house and
shortly afterward returned with a six-month-old orangutan which
he said was from Kalimantan.

The animal was clearly distressed and was shaking as the owner
placed its arms round my neck. While continuing to shake and
whimper, the young orangutan urinated over me, much to the
amusement of those now gathered round. The owner then placed the
orangutan on the ground, where it held out its arms to be picked
up and continued to cry.

When asked, the owner said he took the orangutan out of
Kalimantan by bribing local police officers. He said the amount
of the bribe depended on the value of the animal, with the lowest
bribe being about Rp 200,000.

The price tag on this orangutan was Rp 4.5 million.

The owner then brought out a frail-looking two-month-old
orangutan, which he said was also from Kalimantan and came with
the same price tag.

When I inquired as to where the mother of this baby was, he
laughed hard and said she was "already married again".

It seems that the nouveau riche here consider it chic and
prestigious to own such animals. However, as with young children,
they quickly tire of looking after them and find it difficult to
cope with them when they grow bigger.

Hollywood celebrities have long known the advantages of
associating their names with worthy causes, and the plight of the
orangutan is no exception. In the PBS television program In the
Wild, Orangutans with Julia Roberts, the star gets down and dirty
as she heads to the jungle and communes with the orangutans of
Tanjung Puting National Park in West Kalimantan.

Roberts meets Birute Galdikas, a woman who lives in Kalimantan
and who has devoted her entire life to protecting and studying
the orangutans of Borneo.

In the West, there are many organizations purportedly acting
in the interests of the orangutans, but a trip last year to the
rehabilitation center at Tanjung Puting showed that there is
little being done there to care for these animals. It is also
evident that whatever money is being raised back in the West
through "Adopt an Orangutan", campaigns and other efforts is not
making its way to the centers that are meant to be caring for
these most human-like of animals.

There are a number of camps at Tanjung Puting and as we stayed
for a few nights at the first one, we observed firsthand what was
being done for the orangutans: precious little. There was a
"clinic" at that time with three tiny baby orangutans. But the
clinic was filthy and in the mornings the vet would take the
animals out and leave them to forage in the bushes.

The other staff at the camp seemed altogether indifferent to
the orangutans that were either being rehabilitated therein or
just passing by.

A couple of young orangutans staked out our hut from the
moment we arrived, and whenever there was an opportunity they
would run in and take all our food and cigarettes. If there was
any resistance they would bite us. And they bit hard.

When I asked the Balinese veterinarian why these usually
docile creatures were attacking people, he shrugged and said he
didn't know.

So, while international organizations are crying out to save
the orangutan, the fact is that little is being, or is likely to
be, done. The fate of the orangutan, it seems, is destined to
follow that of the dodo.