DJ Geribo

The critically-endangered Orangutan, known as the “gardeners” of the forest, play a vital role in seed dispersal in their tropical forest habitats. Their numbers have decreased from 230,000 total a century ago, this includes the Bornean, Sumatran, and a third species announced in November 2017, the Tapanuli, to more than half that number.

Orangutans have an extremely low reproductive rate, with females giving birth to one infant every 3-5 years. This is one reason the species takes a long time to recover from population declines.

As usual, man is the biggest threat to the Orangutan population. Deforestation and habitat loss due to illegal logging and oil palm plantations, for one, are major threats to their survival. An easy target for hunters because they are large and slow targets, the Orangutan are killed for food when they move into agricultural areas and destroy crops, due to lack of food they need in the forest.

Females are hunted most often and when caught with offspring, the young are kept as pets, which is a major problem. For each Orangutan that reaches Taiwan, as many as 3-5 additional animals die in the process. Although enforcement of the law in Taiwan has reduced importation of Orangutans, the trade remains a threat in Indonesia.

To help these precious animals survive, read labels before making purchases and don’t buy a product if it has palm oil, speak out against the wild animal pet trade, and support organizations like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that have been working on Orangutan conservation since the 1970s.