New orangutan population found in Indonesia
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New orangutan population found in Indonesia
Conservationists have discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia _ perhaps as many as 2,000 _ giving a rare boost to one of the world's most endangered great apes.
A team surveying forests nestled between jagged, limestone cliffs on the eastern edge of Borneo island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a "substantial" number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy.
"We can't say for sure how many," he said, but even the most cautious estimate would indicate "several hundred at least, maybe 1,000 or 2,000 even."
The team also encountered an adult male, which angrily threw branches as they tried to take photos, and a mother and child.
There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 90 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in neighboring Malaysia.
The countries are the world's top producers of palm oil, used in food, cosmetics and to meet growing demands for "clean-burning" fuels in the U.S. and Europe. Rain forests, where the solitary animals spend almost all of their time, have been clear-cut and burned at alarming rates to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.
The steep topography, poor soil and general inaccessibility of the rugged limestone mountains appear to have shielded the area from development, at least for now, said Meijaard. Its trees include those highly sought after for commercial timber.
Birute Mary Galdikas, a Canadian scientist who has spent nearly four decades studying orangutans in the wild, said most of the remaining populations are small and scattered, which make them especially vulnerable to extinction.
"So yes, finding a population that science did not know about is significant, especially one of this size," she said, noting that those found on the eastern part of the island represent a rare subspecies, the black Borneon orangutan, or Pongo pygmaeus morio.
The 700-square mile (2,500-square kilometer) jungle escaped the massive fires that devastated almost all of the surrounding forests in the late 1990s. The blazes were set by plantation owners and small-scale farmers and exacerbated by the El Nino droughts.
Nardiyono, who headed The Nature Conservancy's weeklong survey in December, said "it could be the density is very high because after the fires, the orangutans all flocked to one small area."
It was unusual to come face-to-face with even one of the elusive creatures in the wild and to encounter three was extraordinary, he said, adding that before this expedition, he had seen just five in as many years.
Conservationists say the most immediate next step will be working with local authorities to protect the area and others that fall outside of national parks. A previously undiscovered population of several hundred also was found recently on Sumatra island, home to around 7,000.
"That we are still finding new populations indicates that we still have a chance to save this animal," said Paul Hartman, who heads the U.S.-funded Orangutan Conservation Service Program, adding it's not all "gloom and doom."
Noviar Andayani, head of the Indonesian Primate Association and Orangutan Forum, said the new discoveries point to how much work still needs to be done to come up with accurate population assessments, considered vital to determining a species' vulnerability to extinction.
"There are many areas that still have not been surveyed," she said, adding that 18 private conservation groups have just started work on an in-depth census based on interviews with people who spend time in the forests.
They include villagers and those working on plantations or within logging concessions.
"We hope this will help fill in a few more gaps," said Andayani, adding that preliminary tests in areas where populations are known indicate that the new interview-based technique could provide a clearer picture than nest tallies.
"Right now the information and data we have about orangutans is still pretty rudimentary," she said.
Some experts say at the current rate of habitat destruction, the animals could be wiped out within the next two decades.
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On the Net:
http://www.tnc.org
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New Orangutan Population in Sangkulirang, East Kalimantan
March 30th, 2009
By Erik Meijaard, The Nature Conservancy
(From The Nature Conservancy website, 30 March 2009)
A New Orangutan Population on Borneo
Finding a new population of any species is good news in conservation. But finding a hitherto undiscovered population of orangutans is really exciting. And we did just that.
In December 2008, we found a significant population of Bornean orangutans. This is some welcome news on a generally gloomy conservation agenda.
Orangutans are among the rarest primates on Earth. Populations are plummeting under the various pressures on their forest habitats. An increasing demand for timber, palm oil, coal and other things desired by the world’s growing human population makes life for orangutans very difficult these days.
So, we all got pretty excited when our field team came back from a survey in a really inaccessible part of Borneo with photos and videos of orangutans. They had travelled to the heart of a 2-million-acre forest area situated in the rugged Sangkulirang limestone mountains in East Kalimantan Province.
Since I first surveyed the vicinity of these mountains in the mid 1990s, I had heard rumors of orangutans in this largely unexplored part of the island. In 2003, The Nature Conservancy organized a major expedition to this same region, and confirmed that at least on the western fringes of the area there were orangutans. But we didn’t expect any significant orangutan populations further east.
Our recent preliminary survey seems to have proven us wrong. Along some six miles of forest transect we found 219 orangutan nests. We cannot yet determine the density from this, but such number generally indicates medium densities of orangutans.
A rapid botanical analysis showed the presence of several orangutan food trees. And because we know that there are very few people in this area and that the forest remains largely untouched, it is quite likely that this area has a population of several hundred orangutans, possibly more than a thousand.
On a total population on Borneo of probably fewer than 50,000 animals, such a find is really important.
The next steps are to work with the local governments to protect these crucial orangutan habitats, and keep orangutan populations from declining further.
The Conservancy is working closely with Indonesian and international partners, including 18 local NGOs, the Indonesian Orangutan Forum, the USAID-funded Orangutan Conservation Services Program, and the Indonesian government, industries, and local communities to develop and implement more coherent and effective strategies to reverse the rapid decline of orangutans.
It’s a struggle, but one that we cannot afford to lose. -
You can call it the HDB housing estate for Orangutans.
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LoL..
Indonesian Orang Utans stay on trees cause of tigers. HDB
East MY Borneo Orang Utans live on the ground n cant climb trees. Bungalow
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Originally posted by Short Ninja:
You can call it the HDB housing estate for Orangutans.
Got HDB in Borneo???
Ahh.. Housing Development of Borneo.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Got HDB in Borneo???
Ahh.. Housing Development of Borneo.
so funny sia
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Good that they are surviving well...
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Ah meng's relatives
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Such a touching picture.