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http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326
Orangutan numbers in Borneo plummet by more than 100,000 in just 16 years

ABC Science <http://www.abc.net.au/science/>

By Carl Smith <http://www.abc.net.au/news/carl-smith/5510224>

Updated Thursday at 20:59

First posted Thursday at 20:01

[image: A male orangutan in Borneo]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-8>
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-8>

In some parts of Borneo, orangutan populations have been wiped out
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-8>

(Supplied: Marc Ancrenaz)

About half of the orangutans on the island of Borneo were either killed or
removed between 1999 and 2015, according to new research.
Key points

   -

   Surveys show only 70,000 - 100,000 orangutans remain in the wild in
   Borneo
   -

   Deforestation one factor, but greater losses seen in forested areas
   -

   Hunting may be the biggest driver

"That's a huge amount of loss," said Professor Serge Wich from Liverpool
John Moores University, a co-author of the study published today in the
journal Current Biology
<http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30086-1>.

"It's a higher amount than we thought, and that we were thinking based on
previous studies," Professor Wich said.

Maria Voigt from the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is
another co-author of the research, which pooled data from 38 international
institutions.

"We used a very broad compilation of orangutan survey data to model their
distribution and found that they had declined by more than 100,000
individuals," Ms Voigt said.

"It's a 50 per cent loss."

Based on their data, Ms Voigt said there were "around 70,000 to 100,000"
orangutans left in the wild in Borneo.

[image: A Bornean female orangutan sits on a railway line]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-14>
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-14>

Human development has crept further into Bornean orangutans' native habitats
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-14>

(Supplied: Serge Wich)

Professor Wich said the decline was calculated by combining existing
surveys of orangutan nests.

"The study we've conducted took advantage of 16 years of survey data on
orangutan locations in Borneo," he said.

"On a large island like Borneo, it's impossible to go to every single piece
of forest."

The team filled in the gaps by looking at maps of land-use changes and
other threats that have an impact on orangutan populations.

They examined how those changes affected populations in areas where they
had nest-survey data.

Then they used those results to extrapolate how the species was faring
right across the island.

"We've used a lot of land-use layers, [and] threat layers, like human
population density, to try to predict what the density is in the areas
where we did not go," Professor Wich said.

The data showed there were more orangutans on the island than was
previously estimated, but also that a greater number were killed.

"In 1999, there were more orangutans than we thought," Professor Wich said.

"But it also means we've lost much more than we thought — so it's a bit of
a double-edged sword in that way."
Deforestation vs hunting

[image: Aerial shot showing a small fragment of forest, surround by cleared
land and palm oil plantations]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-18>
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-18>

Palm oil plantations and logging have both contributed to deforestation in
Borneo
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-18>

(Supplied: Marc Ancrenaz)

The study showed changes in land cover led to whole populations of
orangutans being driven out of some areas.

"You have the steepest loss in the habitat loss areas, where you have
deforestation and conversion," Ms Voigt said.

However, she said this only made up for about 10 per cent of the total
number of orangutans lost.

In terms of raw numbers, more individuals were lost in the remaining
forests and partially forested areas.

The researchers believe this has been driven mainly by hunting.

"This was a really important finding, as it supports previous research that
killing and hunting is a huge problem, and it might even be the biggest
driver during this period," Ms Voigt said.
The baby trade torturing orangutans to extinction
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-22/the-baby-trade-torturing-orangutans-into-extinction/9338946>

[image: An orangutan named Oki, trapped behind bars, looks out from a cage]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-22/the-baby-trade-torturing-orangutans-into-extinction/9338946>

A former orangutan smuggler shares the secrets of how gangs are
slaughtering the great apes to steal their babies to sell as pets or status
symbols
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-22/the-baby-trade-torturing-orangutans-into-extinction/9338946>

Professor Wich said roughly 70 per cent of the total number of orangutans
killed came from forested areas.

"Hunting is a widespread issue," he said.

"Orangutans are frequently being shot when they venture into plantations,
when they venture into small-scale farm areas.

"We had not realised that the issue was this large though," Professor Wich
said.

Adjunct Professor Erik Meijaard from the University of Queensland and the
Brunei-based conservation group Borneo Futures was another co-author of the
study.

He said he had been trying to highlight the impact of hunting over the past
decade, after learning many people in Borneo were still killing orangutans
for food.

"Those people frequently told me how good and sweet orangutan meat was," Dr
Meijaard said.

"Our current study shows that we have collectively failed to address the
most important threats, and therefore orangutan populations are plummeting
on Borneo."

[image: A baby orangutan and its mother peak out from behind a tree]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-24>
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-24>

Many populations of orangutans are close to the brink of extinction
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-24>

(Supplied: Marc Anzrenaz)
Further losses predicted

Professor Wich said the research team also modelled how the remaining
orangutan population in Borneo would fare over coming years. The results
were not promising.

"We examined the potential decline of orangutans through deforestation in
the future, up until 2050," he said.

"It could be that in the period from now until then, we lose about 45,000
orangutans through deforestation alone.

"We didn't even incorporate the potential losses through hunting in that
projection going forward.

"That's the main worry — that we're not giving it its due attention, and
that therefore we're not developing conservation strategies to curb that
hunting."

However, Ms Voigt said there were some promising signs for orangutans, such
as a few populations that were being successfully protected in Malaysian
forest fragments around plantations.

"There are high densities of orangutans [there], and also other wildlife,"
Ms Voigt said.

[image: A female Bornean orangutan with offspring]
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-28>
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-28>

The researchers say some orangutan populations in Borneo have stabilised
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-02-16/orangutan-numbers-in-borneo-drop-more-than-100,000-in-16-years/9443326#lightbox-content-lightbox-28>

(Supplied: Marc Ancrenaz)

She also said a string of recent stakeholder meetings and new action plans
in both Malaysia and Indonesia could help the species.

Professor Wich said he hoped increased awareness would lead to improved
conservation.

"There is a lot more awareness in Indonesia and Malaysia for environmental
issues in general than ever before," he said.

"There are some promising collaborations between conservation and industry
— be that oil palm industry or logging companies — where they try to
maintain the orangutans in those areas.

"We need to be able to find a situation in which we protect orangutans in a
matrix of different land uses.

"Orangutans are fairly flexible and they can probably survive in those
matrices. But we can obviously only do that when they're not being killed."
  • [GELORA45] Orangutan numbers ... Sunny ambon ilmeseng...@gmail.com [GELORA45]

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