Orangutan
The orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), one of the Old World great apes, has its population restricted to the rain forests of the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The orangutan is the largest living arboreal mammal, and it spends most of the daylight hours moving slowly and deliberately through the forest canopy in search of food. Sixty percent of their diet consists of fruit, and the remainder is composed of young leaves and shoots, tree bark, mineralrich soil, and insects. Orangutans are long-lived, with many individuals reaching between 50 and 60 years of age in the wild. These large, chestnut-colored, long-haired apes are facing possible extinction from two different causes: habitat destruction and the wild animal trade.
An orangutan. (Photograph by Tim Davis. Photo Researchers Inc. Reproduced by permission.)The rain forest ecosystem on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo is rapidly disappearing. Sumatra loses 370 mi2 (960 km2) of forest a year, or about 1.6%, faster than any other Indonesian island. The rest of central Indonesia, of which Borneo comprises a major part, loses about 2,700 square miles (7,000 km2) per year. Some experts believe this estimate is too low, and they argue it could be closer to 4,600 mi2 (12,000 km2) per year. Another devastating blow was dealt Borneo's rain forests just over a decade ago, when more than 15,400 mi2 (40,000 km2) of the island's tropical forest was destroyed by drought and fire between 1982 and 1983. The fire was set by farmers who claimed to be unaware of the risks involved in burning off vegetation in a drought stricken area. Even though Indonesia still has over 400,000 mi2 (1,000,000 km2) of rain forest habitat remaining, the rate of loss threatens the continued existence of the wild orangutan population, which is now estimated at about 25,000 individuals.
Both the Indonesian government and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have banned international trade of orangutans, yet their population continues to be threatened by the black market. In order to meet the demand for these apes as pets around the world, poachers kill the mother orangutan to secure the young ones, and the mortality rate of these orphans is extremely high, with less than 20% of those smuggled ever arriving alive at their final destination. This high mortality rate is directly due to stress, both emotional and physiological, on the young orangutans. The transportation scheme involved in smuggling these animals out of Indonesia to major trade centers throughout the world is intricate and time-consuming, and the way in which they are concealed for shipping is inhumane. These are two more reasons why only one out of five or six orangutan babies will survive the ordeal.
Some hope for the species rests in a global effort to manage a captive propagation program in zoos. A potentially self-sustaining captive population of more than 850 orangutans has been established. An elaborate system of networking and recording of all legally held individuals may also aid in the recognition and recapture of smuggled animals. Researchers have also developed methods of determining whether smuggled orangutans are of Bornean or Sumatran origin, thus providing a means of maintaining genetic integrity for those that can be bred in captivity or relocated.
Resources
Books
Galdikas, M. F. Biruté, and Nancy Brigs. Orangutan Odyssey. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
Russon, Anne. Orangutans: Wizards of the Rain Forest. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2000.
Other
Orangutan Sanctuary. [cited May 2002]. <http://www.yorku.ca/arusson� 03E;.
Orang-outang. [cited May 2002]. <http://www.orang-outang.com� 03E;.
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