Facts about Endangered Orangutans
Learning the facts about endangered orangutans is the first step toward helping them survive. If something isn’t done to save them, orangutans will be extinct in another ten to twenty-five years.
There are several reasons that lead to species becoming endangered. Orangutans are facing extinction because of loss of habitat--the destruction of the rainforest by humans. Other threats are the illegal pet trade, hunting, and the most recent danger, palm oil plantations. Since the big push to eliminate trans fats, especially in the United States, orangutan habitat has been devastated by the emergence of more and more palm oil plantations.
Endangered orangutans are still not being protected even though their demise is not that far down the road. In the past 20 years, orangutans have lost 80% of their habitat. Today, there are around 6,600 orangutans in Sumatra and in the neighborhood of 54,000 in Borneo. Both of these countries are islands in Indonesia. They are the only places where orangutans live.
To put endangered orangutans in perspective in terms of habitat destruction, just consider that the population of Indonesia has multiplied from ten to two hundred million people since the beginning of the twentieth century. With this increase in population, humans have subjected the land to slash and burn techniques of deforestation without concern for the destruction of the environment.
These slash and burn methods of clearing land have been used by farmers and those people who have established huge palm oil plantations to make money. This type of deforestation also causes coal and peat underneath the ground to ignite during drought conditions causing massive fires. One-third of all orangutans were lost in fires in the years 1996-98. Habitat is still destroyed by uncontrolled fires every year.
Logging has also not been selective and has resulted in total devastation to the rainforest. On top of all of these happenings, the government’s transmigration of the population of Java into the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra has endangered orangutans and other species of animals and plants.
While taking baby orangutans for the pet trade is illegal, it has not stopped the practice. Today the illegal pet trade of orangutans is thriving. The mother is killed and the baby stolen. For every baby orangutan which is sold as a pet, it is estimated that four to five have died at the hands of humans.
Orangutans are also hunted every day for food and to make souvenirs to sell. Often, orangutans have so little land left they have to eat fruit near human settlements. Those animals which are caught can be killed as pests. In most of these cases the babies are then sold.
Palm oil plantations are the newest threat to the endangered orangutans. As people learn of the dangers of eating unhealthy fats, a bigger demand is created for other sources of fats, such as palm oil. To make room for palm oil plantations, the rainforest is indiscriminately cleared and the lumber sold. Then the palm oil is sold to Western countries whose consumers rarely know the truth about where the oil in their food came from originally.
Some scientists say that while now endangered, orangutans could be totally extinct in the wild in as soon as ten years. That leaves it to you and me to do whatever we can to help save the orangutans. Do not buy any products containing palm oil or purchase products which contain only “sustainable” palm oil. Palm oil is found in chocolate bars, cookies, frozen dinners, popcorn, crackers, pet food, cosmetics, soaps and many other items you buy every day.
Give money to environmental and wildlife organizations who have active programs to save the orangutan. Spread the word to your friends at social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. People can’t do anything to save endangered orangutans if they aren’t aware of the crisis.