WHO IS PROTECTING THE ENDANGERED ORANGUTANS?

I am outraged at the Indonesian government. The magnificent orangutans are about to become extinct because the palm oil and logging industries and farmers are destroying their habitat. Orangutans dwell only in the rainforests of the Indonesian island of Borneo and in parts of Malaysia. Neither government is doing much to protect the habitat of these great apes. The clear cutting of the rainforest by palm oil crop growers, loggers and farmers, if left unchecked, will ensure the extinction of man’s closest living relative.
　
I am especially incensed because for eight years I worked as a volunteer in the primate section of the Houston zoo. I often cleaned up the yard and cages of the zoo’s orangutans. I provided them with many moments of enjoyment as they entertained themselves by spitting on me. The two males could spit for a distance of about 20 feet and do so with considerable accuracy. I sort of miss those days.
　
BRUISED, TIED UP AND CAGED: THE DESPERATE PLIGHT OF STARVING ORANGUTANS FORCED INTO VILLAGES TO LOOK FOR FOOD AS THEIR RAINFOREST HOME IS DESTROYED
By Wil Longbottom
　
Mail Online
December 3, 2010


Arms wrapped dejectedly around his mother, this baby orangutan can only cling on to her for comfort after she was beaten, tied up and shut in a tiny cage.
　
The pitiful creatures were captured after going into a village in Sungai Pinyuh, Indonesia, in a desperate search for food.
　
They were then beaten by villagers so badly one of the primates died before being locked in the tiny cage without food or water.

Rainforests cover 60 per cent of Indonesia, but orangutans - which means man of the forest - have seen their habitat cut down at an alarming rate, often to fuel the need for space to grow palm oil crops.
　
Many adult orangutans are killed by farmers in Indonesia and Borneo to prevent them eating crops as their natural food disappears, leaving helpless orphans to die in the wild.