Plight of the orangutans, a classic tale of man against beast
Plight of the orangutans, a classic tale of man against beast
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Tantri Yuliandini
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
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Once upon a time, orangutans (Pongo pymaeus) roamed thousands
of miles across southern China and Southeast Asia. In the wild,
today, they can only be found on the islands of Kalimantan and
Sumatra.
More than a hundred years ago, these "forest people" lived by
the hundred thousands in the swampy coastal forests of Kalimantan
and northern Sumatra; today they number less than 20,000.
Within the last decade alone, the population of orangutan in
the wild has shrunk by 50 percent. In Sumatra it is estimated
about 1,000 orangutans are lost each year, according to the
United Kingdom-based Orangutan Foundation, while in Kalimantan
the number is estimated to be much higher.
"At this rate, we predict that the orangutan would disappear
from the wild in 10 to 20 years," the foundation said in a
statement. It's the classic race of survival between man and beast -- and
here, it looks like man will once again come out the winner, with
the orangutan's extinction as the price -- unless, an
extraordinary effort is taken to protect the remaining
population.
The problem is, even when left alone in the wild, orangutans
are already vulnerable due to their limited reproductive cycle.
On average, females do not become sexually mature until the
age of 15, and usually only reproduce once every seven years. A
female orangutan usually has no more than three offspring during
her lifetime.
People's fascination with exotic animals worsens the situation
further. Many adult female orangutans are killed to capture their
young, to be sold as pets or zoo animals. It is estimated that
for every baby orangutan that reaches the market, another four or
five orangutans die.
The orangutan's greatest threat, however, lies in their
dwindling habitat, the forests, thanks to humans who ravage the
land more and more for their own use without caring for the
ecosystem. In Kalimantan and Sumatra, the forests are cleared to
make way for oil palm plantations, illegal logging and gold
mining.
The orangutan in fact need a large area to live in. According
to the Orangutan Foundation, a female orangutan, for instance,
needs at least 1,500 hectares of forestland to forage for insects
and fruits, while a male needs up to 4,000 hectares.
The reduction of suitable habitat forces orangutan populations
to go into smaller areas which cannot support their needs.
"The orangutan is on the verge of extinction because they have
lost most of their habitat," Orangutan Foundation director Ashley
Leiman said.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) together with
the Orangutan Foundation launched a global program last year
called the Great Ape Survival Project (GrASP) to protect the
remaining population of orangutans, gorillas, bonobos and
chimpanzees.
There are only 23 countries in the world today where great
apes survive, among them are Indonesia, the Ivory Coast, Liberia,
Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda.
GrASP aims to establish a national Great Ape Survival Plan
(GASP) in each of the 23 countries within two years. The funding
for the plan will be collected by UNEP through government and
private sponsors.
"There is an interdependency between the orangutan and the
forest. We believe that the only way to save the orangutan is to
save its habitat, the tropical forest," said Al Zaqie, Orangutan
Foundation's representative in Indonesia.
In Indonesia, the Orangutan Foundation fights for the survival
of the orangutan in the 3,040-square-kilometer Tanjung Puting
National Park in Central Kalimantan.
The foundation has also successfully acquired some 76,000
hectares of land for an orangutan reserve from a logging
concessionaire in Central Kalimantan. The area is now called the
Lamandau Animal Reserve and today the foundation manages an
Orangutan Care Center for rehabilitation and health care.
Currently, the center takes care of 170 orangutans in various
stages of rehabilitation in a facility meant only to cater for 40
orangutans. The orangutans treated there arrive as young as four
months old to the age of 10 years. Often they need 24-hour care
as usually they are severely traumatized from being kept as pets.
To date, there are 205 orangutans that have been rehabilitated
and returned to the wild from Camp Leakey research center in
Central Kalimantan, while another 16 has been set free in the
Lamandau Animal Reserve.
Why do orangutans warrant protection? One of the reasons is,
orangutans also help preserve the rain forest as they play an
essential role as seed dispersers as they digest food and
eliminate waste. They also act as pruners and aid regenerating
plant growth by choosing green leaves and shoots to eat.
The whole ecosystem is constructed like a fragile house of
cards, each card being man, flora, and fauna. If one of those
components goes missing, the house of cards will tumble down.
More information about orangutans can be accessed through the
Internet at www.orangutan.org, www.orangutan.org.uk, and
www.unep.org/grasp.