At Risk: Orangutans

My Story

It was 1983 and I was 10 years old and living in Medan, Sumatra with my father (A marine civil engineer), my mother and my older brother.  I am a British national and am indebted to my parents for the childhood that they afforded me.

Often, to make life exciting, small parties of expatriates would arrange sorties into the unknown.  One day my mother gathered up my brother and I early one morning and we headed from Medan to Bukit Lawan Sanctuary in Southern Aceh.

I remember a great deal about the day.  I can remember swimming in the river with the local children from the Kampong (local village).  I vividly remember jumping off trees into the river that day.  I also remember the almighty downpour that lasted for about 10 minutes and that turned a rather sedate river into a torrent.  I can also recall the look of horror on my mothers face when she saw the wooden dugout boat that had to take across the now raging torrent to the other side, so that we could start our walk through the forest to the sanctuary.  It was a hot, wet and sticky trek uphill, and as a child I think I may have been a little grumpy, but it was well worth it, as I was soon to see something that has been with me all my life.

We were taken onto some decks up on the trees and one by one, baby orangutans were bought to us by a beautiful woman, who I believe was a Swiss national.  The baby orangutans sat and played with us and we fed them a sort of fruit smoothie (with big lumps in) from buckets.  While this was all going on we all had to be quite quiet, and I don’t remember us saying a word, it was magical.  After about an hour or so the Swiss lady sat all the children down in a circle and she sit in the middle.  This is what she told us in summary.  It was a pretty simple explanation, but we were only children…

Image via Wikipedia

Orphans

She told us that each of the baby orangutans we had held was an orphan and that except for humans, orangutans have the longest childhood of any animal in the world.

Baby orangutans have a long nursing period because they have to learn so much from their mothers in order to survive in the forests.  They are also highly emotional and social apes.

Numbers are dwindling

Today there are only 10,000-25,000 still survive in the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra.

Sumatran orangutans have been struggling for some time. The main reasons are that their home (the forest) are being cut back due to logging, forest fires, and timber clearing for farming (including palm oil plantations) and human settlements. orangutans are also hunted and killed for their meat, and young apes are captured for sale in the illegal pet trade.

Although orangutans are protected by law in Indonesia and Malaysia, enforcement is questionable.

If things carry on going as they are, the orangutan will soon be extinct.

Image via Wikipedia

What Can You do to Help?

If you would like to learn more about organisations that are trying to promote welfare and restructuring projects in East Asia I have added some links at the bottom of this article – one such organisation is the Orangutan Conservancy — click on  www.orangutan.com

As well as donating money to charitable organisations you can help by shopping in a more thoughtful way, by avoiding buying wood or wood products that originate in fragile tropical forest areas.

LINKS:

http://redapes.org

http://www.savetheorangutan.org.uk/

http://www.orangutans-sos.org/?g…

http://www.orangutan.org/

http://www.orangutan-appeal.org….

http://www.forests4orangutans.org