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Conservation park welcomes birth of two baby orangutans
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An orangutan in the forests of Sumatra. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Sumatran Orangutan Observation Center (PPOS), located in Mount Lauser National Park (BBTNGL) on the border of Aceh and North Sumatra, celebrated on Monday the birth of two orangutans at its extensive conservation grounds.
According to Antara news agency, the babies were born to 12-year-old Wati and 31-year-old Ratna, BBTNGL acting head Hotmauli Sianturi said in a statement.
This is Wati’s first child and the eighth for Ratna.
"We are not in a hurry to know the gender of the newborn orangutans, so as not to put pressure on the mother and her baby," Hotmauli said as quoted by Antara.
Mount Lauser National Park is also a popular ecotourism site that is popular among both domestic and foreign travelers.
Read also: Newly discovered orangutan species is most endangered great ape: study
Hotmauli said the park’s orangutans depend on their surroundings for sustenance, gathering their own food instead of being fed as part of the park’s comprehensive approach to conservation.
Park officials continue to conduct routine monitoring, he added, including overseeing the availability of food and changes in the orangutan population. These observations are used to enhance their conservation efforts.
A recent study, conducted in Kalimantan by a team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and other institutions, estimated that the orangutan population has considerably dropped from 100,000 to 75,000.
Separately, the International Union for Conservation said the number could decrease even further to 47,000 by 2025, from the estimated population of 105,000 in 2016.
Meanwhile, Sumatran orangutans, a different species to that in Kalimantan, face a greater threat of extinction with an estimated population of just 12,000. (liz/wng)
