A notorious Thai zoo has sparked concern for the health of its animals after it reopened to visitors following the Covid lockdown. People found bears begging for food in tiny enclosures, emaciated tigers and cattle, crocodiles swimming in filthy water and orangutans desperately reaching out to tourists behind bars. A vet dispatched by the government […]
Tag: orangutans
In Malaysian Borneo’s rainforests, powerful state governments set their own rules
Famed for its caves and karst ecosystems, Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysian Borneo’s Sarawak state is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to more than 81 mammal species, 270 varieties of bird and more than 130 reptiles and amphibians. In 2018, a wave of protest erupted when the public learned that the Sarawak government […]
Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven
JAKARTA — An upgrade to a road that cuts through one of Southeast Asia’s last great swaths of intact rainforest is driving deeper encroachment by humans into blocks of forest that may spread into a national park. The road runs 36 kilometers (22 miles) between the districts of Karo and Langkat in Indonesia’s North Sumatra […]
First COVID-19 cases in zoo gorillas raise alarm about wild populations
Two gorillas at San Diego Zoo in California have tested positive for COVID-19, in the first reported cases of great apes contracting the novel coronavirus. Three of the primates showed symptoms as of this week, and zoo authorities have not ruled out other troop members also being infected. Since the pandemic broke out last year, […]
Historical data point to ‘imminent extinction’ of Tapanuli orangutan
JAKARTA — Onrizal Onrizal remembers hearing stories of human-like creatures living in the forest when he was growing up in Sungai Dareh, a town in western Sumatra, Indonesia. Legend had it that the creatures, called orang pendek, or “short people,” by the locals, disappeared from the forest in the 1970s. Today, Onrizal is a forestry […]
Petition: Shut Down Abusive Zoo in Cambodia that Forces Monkeys to Box!
Animals should be in the wild with their families, not in zoos where they are kept in small enclosures surrounded by loud people throughout the day. They don’t get to engage in the natural behaviors that they would in the wild and many animals suffer as a result. They experience “zoochosis,” which is characterized by […]
Petition: Orangutans Forced to Dress Up and Fight in a Boxing Ring at Cambodian Zoo
Images featuring animal abuse through wildlife tourism at the Phnom Penh Safari in Cambodia were released recently in an article from the Khmer Times. The newspaper outlet sent journalists to the zoo to report on the conditions the animals were being kept in. What they found is angering animal welfare advocates across the globe. Images […]
Snare traps decline, but still pose a threat to Leuser’s Sumatran rhinos
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — For the rhinos of Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, snare traps set by poachers are a key factor that threatens to drive them closer to extinction. The Leuser Ecosystem is one of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Fewer than 80 of the animals are believed to remain […]