What Can Cause Bornean-Orangutans

I primarily observed three orangutans, one male, one female, and one juvenile, of Sumatran and Bornean descent, scientifically known as Pongo abelli and Pongo pygmaeus, respectively, and to a lesser extent, two gibbons known as siamangs, or Symphalangus syndactylus. These primates share the same enclosure in the San Diego Zoo in California. I observed the orangutans from 12:58 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. CST on September 19th. During this time frame, the three orangutans mainly stayed high up in their man-made structures, consisting of multiple metal bars covered with nets, ropes, and hammocks. The female and juvenile orangutans stayed above ground from 12:58 P.M. to 1:31 P.M., and again from 1:48 P.M. until 2:00 P.M, approximately 45 minutes. During

Orangutans have long lifespans (30-40 years) with long interbirth intervals and low reproductive rates. In fact, females have eight year intervals between births and will only give birth to one or two offspring in her lifetime. The reason why this poses a problem is that when an enormous amount of orangutans are killed, it’s tough to recover because they are not producing large numbers of children nor do they have short interbirth intervals. Consequently, there will be extremely high death rates and very few births (UNEP, 2007). Their population numbers will continue to fall because they won’t be able to compensate for the great loss. A study completed by Michael Bruford and Benoit Goossens at Cardiff University showed that in 1900, there were approximately 315,000 orangutans in Indonesia. Currently, there are about 60,000 orangutans living in the forests of Indonesia, which is a massive population decline (Kaye, 2016).When orangutans are driven out of their habitat due to deforestation and illegal logging it forces them to roam a great distance in search of food. Orangutans are solitary creatures, spending the majority of their time in the trees. Their diet relies mainly on fruit, with a preference for fruit with soft pulp. They also eat buds, flowers, leaves, soil tree bark, and some insects. Due to their largely frugivorous diet, they have to monitor the seasonal availability of resources. When fruit is abundant, they will increase their food intake and store the food as fat for energy. This enables them to eat low quality food items in habitats where fruit may be scarce (Delgado & Van Schaik, 2000). The dipterocarp forests of Borneo and Sumatra have trees that fruit simultaneously, so there is an abundance of fruit once every 2 to 5 years which are known as the “mast years”. During the other years there is not as much fruit, so orangutans have to maintain large home ranges in

Habit loss has been one of the most prominent issues regarding the animal kingdom, and now it seems like the human race is trying to rid our earth of the decreasing amount of flora in certain areas. In Indonesia rain forests are being torn apart to make way for palm oil plantations. Although palm oil is used in packages foods and cosmetics, the Sumatrans elephants and orangutan are suffering from the habitats loss. (Corwin, 8)

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

Because orangutans are so well adapted for the ecological niche they occupy, it is understandable why their populations suffer when their habitat is destroyed. In fact, in the last 20 years orangutans have lost nearly 80% of their natural habitat largely due to deforestation. Between the years of 1999 and 2006 roughly 55% of that deforestation was due to the expansion of the palm oil industry. Furthermore, Indonesia and Malaysia combined account for nearly 87% of the global output of palm oil with Indonesia generating about 18.7 and Malaysia 17.4 million tons a year. When considering these statistics, it raises questions about why this industry is seemingly more relevant than conserving natural resources and more importantly protecting an invaluable species of ape from extinction. To answer this question, it might be helpful to consider how the vast majority views the palm oil industry by comparison to the orangutans in terms of economics.

There are many examples of iconic animals that we take for granted when it comes to thoughts of sharing our earth with them in the far future, but it is becoming more evident throughout the passing of time that this will no longer be true with current conditions. When it comes to animals becoming extinct not many people think that many recognized animals, besides the most talked about ones like Polar bears and Giant pandas, are at risk. One of these incredibly recognized endangered animals is the Orangutan. One of the most distinguished of the great apes, both of the subspecies of Orangutan are endangered; The Bornean and the Sumatran, with the Sumatran being declared as a critical species.

In the last two decades, palm oil has been one of the most imported goods around the world. In fact, the top industries are located in Sumatra, Indonesia, holding up to 90% of the world’s exported palm oil. Palm oil comes from the palm fruit of the African oil palm trees, and is grown mainly in the rainforest area. Unfortunately, the actions taken to grow these trees are causing horrible impacts to the world’s environment, such as deforestation, pollution, and increased greenhouse-gas emissions. Between 1985 and 2011, more than 30 million acres of the Sumatran forest disappeared because of the involvement of palm oil. Because of these environmental impacts, it’s leading to animal cruelty, especially for the Sumatran tiger. The deforestation of palm oil is driving Sumatran tigers toward extinction, because of the endangered wildlife environment, hazardous plantations, and starvation. According to One Green Planet, at least 80% of the Sumatran wildlife habitat is lost from the production of palm oil leading to the extinction of the Sumatran tigers. In 2017, it has been recorded that their are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers that exist (How Palm Oil Impacts the Sumatran Tiger).

The Sumatran Orangutan population has depleted drastically in the last twenty to thirty years due to their habitat loss through the clearing of forests to pave way for oil palm plantations and other agricultural developments (Gursky-Doyen, S., & Supriatna, J., 2010). With palm oil being extremely versatile, its demand has resulted in having 48 million tonnes of palm oil being produced each year for the world export market (Oil World Trade Journal, 2008),

The Sumatran Orangutans are mostly located in the trees of the tropical rainforest. They weight from 66 pounds to 198 pounds and can be 4 to 5 feet in length. Their scientific name is Pongo abelii. Unfortunately due to deforestation and other factors the Sumatran orangutans are labeled as critically endangered. Over the years due to habitat loss, the orangutans are losing their homes. The trees from the forests are being cut down and animals like the orangutans who do not come down from their tree are left without a home. The continuation of cutting the trees are leaving more and more Sumatran Orangutans homeless. Also, illegal trade causes the orangutans to be captured and sold. During the process of capturing an orangutans, the mother is

A lot of people and companies are cutting down areas of trees as big as New Jersey. The more people cut the more it affect the Earth. It can also affect the animals in the rainforest. There are some animals that depend on the rainforest and people are just cutting it down, so the animals have to leave and find a new home. This can lead to animals decreasing and dying.

If orangutans were removed from the ecosystem, a large amount of fruit are produced each year. Due to the increase of fruits and leaves, primary consumers including monkeys which have related diets will increase in population because of the fruits and others, which also increase the secondary and tertiary consumers. But because of this effect, now jaguars and possibly other organisms that eat orangutans lose one of their diet, also resulting population loss. You cannot accurately tell all possible affects that are going to happen because if one organism was removed, consumers will decrease in population.

Some human influences are that they destroy lands of rainforest and can hunt and kill animals from polluting the air or polluting water. This is a problem to the rainforest biome. Also humans cut down acres of trees and this is a horrible thing to do because they don’t know what they are doing to the rainforest.

Some contextual factors include deforestation, climate, species and exploitation. The growth of palm oil is only possible in the humid tropics, thus it usually comes at the expense of the tropical rainforest to allow for the development of the plantation area. In this way forests are burned to make way for plantations which in turn led to release of significant amounts of greenhouse gas discharge. The destruction of forests eventually led to the loss of natural habitat for animals that live in the wild nature, especially those that are endangered. Such a development and expansion of palm oil plantations also caused numerous social conflicts between various stakeholders like governments, communities and companies over the rights of the community

Firstly, loss of habitat is one of the most common cause of animal endangerment. Obviously,every organism need a place that is natural for their life and growth, called habitat. This habitat consists of five elements: food, water, shelter, space and an appropriate mixture of these elements. All animal species must have adequate habitat in order to survive. Destructive change to environments or landscapes, either through natural phenomena (such as floods, volcanoes, hurricanes etc.), or human processes (such as construction, deforestation, changing landuse for agriculture, artificial land drainage etc.), is the single greatest impact on habitat of animals. When an animal does not have a habitat, and cannot adapt to a different environment, as

Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation because as human population grows the need for agricultural products increases. Unfortunately, the land used for cultivation results in the displacement of tree reliant animals such as the orangutan. “Without forests, orangutans cannot survive” (Galdikas). Palm oil is produced from trees grown in large plantations in regions where tropical rainforests once existed. The orangutans’ way of life revolves around the existence of trees, they nest in trees, drink water out of holes, and eat their fruit. Orangutans also