INTRODUCTION:
Orangutans are three extant species of apes native to Indonesia and Malaysia. Orangutans are only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Orangutans are classified under the genus Pongo. At first, orangutans were all seen as one species. However, upon further discoveries, they were divided into two; Pongo pygamaeus and Pongo abelli, then just recently in November 2017, a third species was identified; Pongo tapanuliensis.
Orangutans are the only surviving species of the Ponginae sub-family. Below is the classification of orangutans.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Sub-order: Haplorhini
Infra-order: Simiiformes
Family: Homonidae
Sub-family: Ponginae
Genus: Pongo
Species: Pongo Pygamaeus, Pongo abelli, pongo tapanuliensis
Orangutans have a bulky body, thick neck. They have a very long arms, they have no tails, they have short and bowed legs. Orangutans have a reddish-brown hair.
Male orangutans can also develop moustache due to the hairs that grow on their faces. Adult males have cheek flaps. These cheeks flaps are very large, and are used to show dominance to other rival males. Matured Males have the ability to make loud calls, this is also to intimidate rivals and also to attract female orangutans.
Orangutans’ hands have a somewhat semblance to human hands, they have four long fingers and an opposable thumb. Orangutans’ feet also have a semblance to human feet, they also have four long toes and an opposable big toe. Orangutans can grasp things with both their hands and feet.
Orangutan’s eat fruits, bark, honey, insects and even bird eggs. Fruit however, is the most important of all to the orangutans.
Orangutans are arboreal and they spend most of their times on trees.
The Borneo Orangutan is one step closer to extinction!!!
Orangutans are critically endangered species. This means that they are very close to extinction. Orangutans are now in the “Critically endangered” step, this is just one step from the status, “Extinct into the Wild” Check this out. It is calculated that the number of orangutans will decrease by about 80% between 1950 and 2025 (given the current development plans the government of indonesia and malaysia plans to do). This is very high. Let me put it in terms which we can relate to, an 80% decrease in a number of humans means that 4 out of 5 humans would die, now relate it to orangutans. Do you see the picture?
Who is responsible for this?
Many reports say that the reason for the Bornea Orangutan going into extinction is due to forest conversion and to be more specific, they say that oil palm development is the main cause. This is actually not wrong, because over 17.7million ha of forest has been destroyed in Borneo in over the past 40 years. More than 50% of these forests used to be prime habitats for Orangutan. Orangutan is not the only animal affected by the conversion of forests to agriculture and other type of land-uses. Other animals are affected also, and instead of deforestation to be on the decline, it is alarmingly on the increase. However, orangutans are declining throughout their entire range across Borneo, and this is not only in places where deforestation occurs, but in other places also. Hence, it is very safe to say that, forest conversion to agriculture is not the only reason for the drastic decline of the species.
Hunting is and would always be a major threat to Orangutan’s survival in Borneo, if care is not taken. An alarming number of 2,000 and 3,000 orangutans are killed every year in Borneo, and female orangutans have eight-year intervals between births, the longest interbirth intervals among the great apes. I am not a mathematician, but I can predict that the mathematics relating these is not good. Orangutans are killed for their meat, their traditonal medicinal value or the pet trade. Orangutans are also killed when they destroy people’s crops, but these “conflict” killings do not even account for up to half of the killings that orangutans experience. This shows that most of the orangutan killings are done by local hunters for no just reason.
How can this be helped?
WE have seen that the major casuses of Orangutan decline in Borneo is hunting and deforestation.
Hunting of Orangutan should be stopped, it should be illegal and those people that hunt orangutans should be punished for their crimes. The law should be enforced, and people need to become conversant with the protected status of the species. These should become the responsibility of relevant authorities.
Forests should be protected. Deforestation should gradually become reduced. Also, Industries such as timber, oil palm or mining) that engage in deforestation should adhere to sustainable management practices. For instance, forest corridors should be create to link population that are isolated due to fragmentation. These forest corridors would provide a way for the orangutans to move across places that have been deforested to other forests.
With these, I am very sure, we would be able to prevent the Orangutans found in Borneo from going into extinction.
IMAGE SOURCES:
All images use in this post were gotten from pixabay.com
REFERENCES: