Orangutans: VIPs of Asia’s rainforests
Forest destruction has halved orangutan numbers – but we can all help protect them.
Orangutans species:
Affected by: Food & farming , Habitat loss and fragmentation , Illegal wildlife trade
Affected by: Food & farming , Habitat loss and fragmentation , Illegal wildlife trade
What an extraordinary creature the orangutan is. It’s one of the most human-like of all wild animals – although of course with extra-long arms and more ginger hair.
But this ‘person of the forest’ (that’s what orangutan means in Malay) is now at serious risk. And one of the biggest threats to them is in lots of the everyday products we buy.
A century ago, orangutans lived in forests all across south-east Asia – from southern China to the Indonesian island of Java. Today they’re only found on two islands: Sumatra and Borneo. As the orangutans’ forests have disappeared, so have their numbers – cut by around half in just the last 60 years.
It’s vitally important to protect these incredible animals – Asia’s only great apes – and their rainforest habitat before it’s too late. Your support is crucial, and the good news is you can help in lots of ways.
Donna Simon Field Biologist"I spent my childhood growing up in an oil palm estate in Sabah. The only thing that I saw outside in the morning and where I spent my time playing with my friends was the oil palm plantation. As I grow up I started to look at nature differently and excited to uncover what we have in our rainforest. I changed from a person who didn't know anything about nature to someone who enjoys nature and is now working to conserve our closest living relatives - the orangutan."
Where do orangutans live?
Orangutans spend most of their lives up in trees, foraging, moving between branches, and building treetop nests for resting during the day and for a good night's sleep. Orangutans are primarily tree-dwelling primates, but Bornean orangutans, both males and females, are also known to walk on the ground to forage for food or travel to other areas.
In the past, orangutans used to live as far north as southern China, and throughout Southeast Asia. However, due to hunting and habitat loss, the species range is now restricted to the fragmented tropical rainforests on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
Why orangutans are so important
Orangutans are known as gardeners of the forest, because they help spread seeds around. You know how it works – they eat fruit from the trees, the seeds come out the other end, the forest spreads. Especially the larger seeds that don’t get spread by smaller animals.
Without that seed distribution, the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra would be drastically different, and that would have impacts on all the people and animals that live in or use those rainforests.
The people of Borneo and Sumatra depend on the orang-utan’s rainforest for food, water, income and environmental protection.
Challenges affecting orangutans
There’s nothing wrong with palm oil. Lots of everyday products, from snacks to soaps, use it. The problem is how it’s grown. As consumers in the UK we can all help by demanding that the palm oil used in our local supermarkets only comes from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sources.
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Challenges affecting orangutans
Hunting remains a major threat to orangutans. Most of the animals are killed by local hunters for non-conflict reasons: for their meat, or the pet trade. Young orangutans (up to the age of seven) are popular targets for the illegal pet trade. Hunters usually kill the mother when stealing her infant. Though it’s against the law, the regulations aren’t always enforced strongly enough.
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Challenges affecting orangutans
Orangutan breeding and survival is greatly dependant on availability of their main food source, fruit. Currently many rainforest flowers and fruits are at risk because of the increased rainfall, which interferes with the reproduction of the plants and decreases fruit production.
More about climate change
Challenges affecting orangutans
In the early 1970s more than three-quarters of Borneo was forested. Within four decades, over half those forests had been cut down by commercial loggers (often illegally) or cleared for agriculture, mining, roads or other developments. Today, illegal logging inside protected areas and unsustainable logging in concessions where orangutans live remain a major threat to their survival. Less than a third of orangutans are currently living within protected forests in Borneo and their remaining habitat is severely fragmented splitting large populations into smaller, isolated sub-populations - increasing the risk of these sub-populations disappearing.
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