PONTIANAK, Indonesia — As the forests of Indonesian Borneo burned during fires last year, a female orangutan was forced to leave her burning home. When she was rescued from a small farm, experts found signs of recent pregnancy and wounds on her body. The orangutan, later named Epen by her rescuers, was found foraging at […]
Tag: indonesian borneo
Palm oil processors top plantations in destroying proboscis monkey habitat
JAKARTA — The oil palm processing industry has become the biggest threat to the iconic and endangered proboscis monkeys of Indonesian Borneo, a new study has found. The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, analyzed the loss of habitat of the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) in Balikpapan Bay, home to one of […]
Halting Deforestation and Protecting Orangutans in Indonesia
Recent studies have indicated that expansion of our planet’s forests is a critical step toward mitigating climate change. This, along with conservation of our existing forests, specifically ones that host a large amount of biodiversity – like rainforests – is more important than ever. The rainforests of Indonesian Borneo house millions of tons of carbon […]
The long journey to saving the Sumatran rhino, via Borneo (commentary)
In 1982, an orangutan researcher working in Indonesian Borneo wrote to a colleague at the biology department at the National University in Jakarta. He told of meeting a traditional-medicine trader at the market in Pangkalan Bun, a city in Central Kalimantan province. “A whole Sumatran rhino head is immersed in coconut oil in a basin,” […]
Christmas ad conundrum: Is a palm oil boycott the way to save apes?
A Christmas advertisement deemed too political to air in the U.K. but that has been viewed more than 70 million times online has rekindled the debate about how to save orangutans from going extinct: should consumers boycott products containing palm oil? In one corner is the British supermarket chain Iceland, which earlier this year announced […]
Orangutan found shot, hacked at palm plantation with history of deaths
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia are investigating the killing of a rare orangutan whose body was found riddled with bullet and knife wounds in an oil palm plantation with a history of orangutan deaths. Workers at the plantation in Seruyan district, in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, pulled the badly decomposed corpse […]
Officials: Sumatran rhino is extinct in the wild in Sabah
There are no Sumatran rhinos left in the wild in the Malaysian state of Sabah, confirmed Masidi Manjun, the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, over the weekend. In 2008, conservationists estimated there were around 50 rhinos in the state. Five years later, it dropped that estimate to just ten. Now, it’s admitted the awful truth: […]
Marooned in shrinking forests, Bornean orangutans hang on as disaster looms (Part I)
The great apes are among some of the most endangered species on Earth, the targets of poachers and the victims of deforestation. However, from time-to-time there comes news of hope. A study published recently in Oryx describes the dire situation faced by Bornean orangutans, as well as an ambitious project to help save them. The […]