Deforestation to make room for palm oil plantations is wiping out the natural habitat of the lovable red apes
Having worked closely during eight years as a volunteer with the Houston Zoo’s orangutans and other primates, I fell in love with the magnificent red apes despite their habit of having fun by getting a mouthful of water and spitting with deadly accuracy at me and their regular keepers. Oh yes, to add insult to injury, occasionally one of the males would poop in his water bowl, get a mouthful of a poop-water cocktail, and fire away at anyone who came within 20 feet of him.
It is a crying shame that Orangutans in the wild are about to be wiped out because of the demand for soap and perfume.
BABY ORGANGUTAN LEFT WITH STUMPS OF MISSING FINGERS THAT WERE SLICED OFF WITH A MACHETE DURING FOREST CLEARANCES
Sura, four months, was found wounded in Tumbang Koling, in Indonesian Borneo, after a forest was cleared for a new oil palm plantation
By Mia de Graaf
Mail Online
November 22, 2013
A four-month-old Orangutan is recovering after having the tips of his fingers hacked off, allegedly during forest clearances for a new oil palm plantation in Indonesian Borneo.
Sura, who was discovered by a resident of the Tumbang Koling village in East Kotawaringin Regency, is being nursed back to health by specialists at the Nyaru Menteng Rescue centre.
Vets carried out a full health check and discovered three of his fingers had been severed by either a knife or machete.
Sura now needs to be cared for by a full-time babysitter.
British charity Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation is helping fund the centre and Sura's care.
It is the latest scandal to emerge in the controversy over deforestation as companies plough through Indonesia's wildlife to build oil plantations.
The sweep has caused a rapid decline in the orangutan population.
Environmentalists fear they have years of work ahead of them in educating remote villages about the need to protect, not capture or kill, these animals whose numbers are falling dramatically.
About 100 years ago it was thought there were 315,000 orangutans in the wild but today there are less than 54,000 in Borneo and only around 6,000 on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
As manufacturers look for places to cultivate oil for soaps and perfumes, the primates' natural habits are being ploughed by bulldozers.
And now homeless, many have been captured by local villagers, abused, and used for entertainment.
Last month, International Animal Rescue saved an orangutan from Tempurkan, which had no food or water and was being forced to dance and fight with humans.
Alerted by a villager, the charity found Ael - which means 'Saint' - sedated her and then moved her to a rescue centre. She will be released into the wild when a safe area in the forest can be found for her.
Meanwhile, the villagers have been told that catching and keeping an orangutan is against the law in Indonesia.
1 comment:
Orangutans don't smell as good as perfume or soap, so most people don't care that much.
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