Orang Utans are in Peril!

First off, what are Orang Utans? Let's get to know the animal we're talking about here before we go any further about them being in peril. The orangutans are two species of great apes known for their intelligence, long arms and reddish-brown hair. Pretty ugly by ape standards, but nevertheless we should not be bias about saving cute animals only.

They are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These are the last places on Earth they are known to exist - these are cause for concern. Interestingly however, their fossils have been known found in Java, Vietnam and China.

Their name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase "orang hutan", meaning "Jungle Man". The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia.

As far as I know, none exist in Sarawak. Right now you're probably thinking, "This Ian is a weirdo, why it be any of our concern if there are (apparently) none in Sarawak?"

Well, simply because - Sarawak is part of that Borneo, and as a whole, we needed to be aware of these things and help the effort in getting spreading awareness. The Bornean species of orangutans is endangered, and the Sumatran species is listed critically endangered.

It is this news article that got me thinking about the severity of situation.

Very shocking quotes from the article:

"For Central Kalimantan, the species will be gone as soon as three years from now"

"Experts believe the overall extinction rate of Borneo orangutans is nine per cent per year, but in Central Kalimantan they are disappearing even faster due to unchecked expansion of palm oil plantations."

So this is what got the conservationists jumping up and down three years ago when they accused Sarawak's oil palm plantation of destroying the orang utan's habitat (as mentioned before, none exist in Sarawak). They simply got bad geography and actually meant Central Kalimantan, where they are hunted as pests to prevent them eating palm seedlings!

Even though Sarawak does not have Orang Utan, we're still part of that Borneo, the island we share with the Orang Utans. It is this island that not only are they killing Orang Utans mercilessly, but deforestation and irresponsible field burning adds to not only the Orang Utan's demise, but probably ours very soon as well. Suddenly the border dividing Sarawak and Kalimantan becomes meaningless.

Please help spread the awareness, especially to our young children, so they'll grow up with this in mind, possibly even changing our world and treatment towards animals for the better in the future. The future lies in their hands, because the current generation of humans are such screw-ups when it comes to awareness of endangered animals.

To learn more about Orang Utans, please see the reference links

The News Article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan

http://www.orangutanprotection.com/

http://www.savetheorangutan.org/