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Over 100,000 orangutans in Borneo killed over 16 years

Scientists have blamed the loss of over 100,000 orangutans on Borneo Island between 1999 and 2015, around half of the estimated population in the initial year, on rampant poaching

Moses Ompusunggu and N. Adri (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, February 17, 2018

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Over 100,000 orangutans in Borneo killed over 16 years

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cientists have blamed the loss of over 100,000 orangutans on Borneo Island between 1999 and 2015, around half of the estimated population in the initial year, on rampant poaching.

In a study published in scientific journal Current Biology on Thursday, the scientists also found that, during the 16-year period, the highest rates of orangutan decline were detected in areas that have been converted into industrial plantations, showing the effects of “unsustainable use of natural resources”.

However, the largest numbers of vanished orangutans were recorded in areas that were forested during the period of the study, indicating that poaching and killing played a major role, according to the scientists.

The researchers referred to 16 years of ground and aerial surveys that recorded the number of orangutan nests found in Kalimantan, Indonesia’s part of Borneo, and Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak regions. They found the number of nests decreased significantly from 22.5 to 10.1 nests per kilometer, contributing to the estimated loss of 148,500 orangutans during the period.

Land clearing to make room for timber and oil palm plantations was the primary cause behind the loss of orangutans’ habitat in Borneo, the study suggests. Yet, most orangutans vanished in selectively logged and intact forests, where decline rates were lower but far more orangutans were found.

“In the absence of plausible alternative explanations for the observed loss of orangutans in seemingly intact habitats, such as the occurrence of widespread and highly lethal infectious diseases as observed among African apes, killing is the most likely explanation,” the study says.

On Feb. 3, officials found a dead orangutan with 19 fresh stab wounds and 130 air rifle pellets inside its body in Teluk Pandan village, near the border Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan. Its left foot had also been hacked off.

The discovery came just around one month after a dead orangutan was found on the banks of the Maduru River in North Barito, Central Kalimantan, with air rifle bullet wounds and a missing head.

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) director Jamartin Sihite called the recent discovery of dead orangutans the “tip of the iceberg”, saying low-caliber air rifles could immediately kill smaller, endangered animals, such as the pangolin and the slow loris.

Authorities in Kalimantan have considered banning the possession of air rifles in villages to prevent orangutan abuse, yet conservationists say the most important measure to take is to increase awareness about the consequences of killing endangered animals at the local level.

The possession of air rifles is not illegal in Indonesia, as long as owners report to the police and use it for sport or hunting activities. Locals near Kutai National Park, however, have said it is easy to obtain air rifles without a permit from the police.

The hunting and killing of orangutans have “not been addressed in orangutan conservation so far”, said lead researcher in the study Maria Voigt of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany in an email interview. “But it is important that firm strategies to stop the killing of orangutans are included into the conservation plans for the species.”

By 2050, the scientists estimated 45,300 orangutans could vanish on Borneo as a consequence of predicted future habitat loss alone, calling it an “underestimate” as the projection did not take into account poaching. Studies suggest that the number of orangutans left on Borneo now amounts to around 70,000 to 100,000.

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