Bornean Orangutan
Pongo pygmaeus, or the Bornean Orangutan is the only Great Ape that lives in Asia. Once found throughout Southeast Asia, they are confined to small populations on the island of Borneo (the Pongo pigmeaus pigmeaus) and have cousins that live in parts of Sumatra (the Pongo pigmeaus abelii). They have long, coarse hair that varies from orange to brown. Males have large cheek pads and a laryngeal sac used for sound reverberation, distinctly different from those from Sumatra, where the pads and sacs are much smaller. Females can weigh anywhere from seventy-two to one hundred pounds and males weigh from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred pounds. They usually reside in lowland tropical forests and tropical swamp forests and have a rather varied diet, from small mammals (such as squirrels) and small birds to shoots and fruit. An orangutan has specially shaped hands and feet to grab branches and progress by fist walking rather than knuckle walking which is a technique used by other primates. Orangutans have a life span of approximately 60 years, the longest of any ape(Rowe 220-223).Wild orangutans spend almost their entire life in trees, and build nests every night to sleep in (Russon 126)
. They live in solitude, with a male territory encompassing that of many females. Their specific behavior only makes the orangutan a more unique mammal. An orangutan’s intelligence is second only to that of chimpanzees in the primates, they can learn up to 150 sign language signs (Lindsay 108). Orangutans make eighteen distinguishable vocalizations, including the long “I’m over here” call and the kiss-squeak of annoyance (Rowe 222). Bornean orangutans are in a terrible situation. Because their habitat is disappearing at such a rapid pace, the orangutans are dangerously close to extinction. The effects of massive logging and fires raging throughout Southeast Asia have left their environment in ruins. According to the text of the 1998 G-8 meeting held in Birmingham on forest management, “illegal logging robs national and subnational governments, forest owners and local communities of significant revenues and benefits, damages forest ecosystems, distorts timber markets and forest resource assessments and acts as a disincentive to sustainable forest management. International trade in illegally harvested timber including transfer pricing, under invoicing and other illegal practices, exacerbates the problem of illegal logging.” In fact, in the last ten years, orangutan populations have declined by 50% and their habitat has disappeared by 80% in the last twenty years. Estimates suggest that at the current rate, wild orangutans will be completely extinct within the next 10-20 years. This has caused them to be in the second most endangered group of all animals. In some parts of Borneo, gold dust has been found in the soil, and many treasure hunters cut down acres of forest and polluted the water. Also contributing to the low populations are poachers who kill adults for
Some topics in this essay:
Sumatra Pongo,
Southeast Asia,
Borneo Somalia,
North America,
Orangutan Network,
Camp Leakey,
Conservation Agency,
Orangutan Awareness,
Borneo Pongo,
Orangutan Ape,
orangutan population,
support efforts,
wild orangutans,
protect orangutan population,
hundred pounds,
pongo pigmeaus,
tropical forests,
various environmental,
conservation project,
throughout southeast asia,
protect orangutan,
forest management,
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Approximate Word count = 1208
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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