Issues
Habitat Loss
Orangutans are the largest arboreal animals, which means they spend most of their time up in the trees. They prefer habitats like forested floodplains, lowland swamps, and mountain foothills. As frugivores (fruit eaters), they require large home ranges to forage for sufficient amounts of food. Even small changes in their habitat can have big impacts. All three species of orangutan (Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli) are critically endangered.
Unfortunately, their habitat is continually declining both in quantity and quality. This includes direct reduction of available habitat through deforestation as well as degradation of remaining habitat by things like pollution and fragmentation. Additionally, the consequences of habitat loss lead to other challenges like when orangutans eat the crops local communities rely on for sustenance and economic opportunities.
If this situation doesn’t improve soon, orangutans could be extinct in the wild within the next 10-20 years. Habitat loss can be caused by many factors, and any or all of them contribute to the decline of orangutan populations. Click here to learn more about habitat loss.
Orangutans are the largest arboreal animals, which means they spend most of their time up in the trees. They prefer habitats like forested floodplains, lowland swamps, and mountain foothills. As frugivores (fruit eaters), they require large home ranges to forage for sufficient amounts of food. Even small changes in their habitat can have big impacts. All three species of orangutan (Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli) are critically endangered.
Unfortunately, their habitat is continually declining both in quantity and quality. This includes direct reduction of available habitat through deforestation as well as degradation of remaining habitat by things like pollution and fragmentation. Additionally, the consequences of habitat loss lead to other challenges like when orangutans eat the crops local communities rely on for sustenance and economic opportunities.
If this situation doesn’t improve soon, orangutans could be extinct in the wild within the next 10-20 years. Habitat loss can be caused by many factors, and any or all of them contribute to the decline of orangutan populations. Click here to learn more about habitat loss.
Photo copyright www.theitinerant.co.uk
Palm Oil
The single greatest threat facing wild orangutans today is the rapidly expanding palm oil industry. Rainforests are being cleared at the rate of 300 football fields per hour to make way for oil palm plantations. While there are millions of hectares of oil palm degraded land that could be used for plantations, many oil palm companies choose instead to use rainforest land to make additional profits by logging the timber first. Palm oil companies also frequently use uncontrolled burning to clear the land, resulting in thousands of orangutans being burned to death. Those that survive have nowhere to live and nothing left to eat. Learn more about palm oil and its impact on orangutans here.
The single greatest threat facing wild orangutans today is the rapidly expanding palm oil industry. Rainforests are being cleared at the rate of 300 football fields per hour to make way for oil palm plantations. While there are millions of hectares of oil palm degraded land that could be used for plantations, many oil palm companies choose instead to use rainforest land to make additional profits by logging the timber first. Palm oil companies also frequently use uncontrolled burning to clear the land, resulting in thousands of orangutans being burned to death. Those that survive have nowhere to live and nothing left to eat. Learn more about palm oil and its impact on orangutans here.
Photo from barnesandnoble.com
Orangutans in the Entertainment Industry
In captivity, orangutans continue to be exploited by the entertainment and advertising industries. While the public’s awareness of animal welfare concerns has grown in recent years, there remains a stubborn disconnect between such sensitivities and the use of apes in live stage shows, television and movie productions, advertisements, “lighter side of the news” segments, etc. The orangutans used in such venues are always infants or juveniles; they are removed from their mothers prematurely and trained to work as performers until they grow too large and powerful to be controlled. At that point, the apes are placed back in the animal-dealer trade and all too often in very inhumane conditions, caged as breeding stock to produce more infants, or relegated to small, hidden cages for the remainder of their very long lives (orangutans can live more than 50 years, but can only be safely handled for the first 6-8). Click here to read more about how the entertainment industry uses orangutans.
In captivity, orangutans continue to be exploited by the entertainment and advertising industries. While the public’s awareness of animal welfare concerns has grown in recent years, there remains a stubborn disconnect between such sensitivities and the use of apes in live stage shows, television and movie productions, advertisements, “lighter side of the news” segments, etc. The orangutans used in such venues are always infants or juveniles; they are removed from their mothers prematurely and trained to work as performers until they grow too large and powerful to be controlled. At that point, the apes are placed back in the animal-dealer trade and all too often in very inhumane conditions, caged as breeding stock to produce more infants, or relegated to small, hidden cages for the remainder of their very long lives (orangutans can live more than 50 years, but can only be safely handled for the first 6-8). Click here to read more about how the entertainment industry uses orangutans.
Orangutans as Pets
There is something irresistible about an infant primate – they are magnetically appealing, with their wide eyes and open expressions, and they seem so much like an adorable human infant. However, those cuddly babies grow up into intelligent, incredibly strong, willful adults, and they can never be managed appropriately in a human household. Click here to read about why orangutans should never be pets.
There is something irresistible about an infant primate – they are magnetically appealing, with their wide eyes and open expressions, and they seem so much like an adorable human infant. However, those cuddly babies grow up into intelligent, incredibly strong, willful adults, and they can never be managed appropriately in a human household. Click here to read about why orangutans should never be pets.
Primates in Social Media
Social media may be a resource for great ape and primate conservation, but it can also be a hindrance to their preservation in the wild. Pictures and videos of primates circulate on social media every day, and often go viral from people “liking” and “sharing” the content with others. Before clicking the “like” or “share” button, people need to ask themselves whether the content is really supportive of primates and their needs. Popular social media posts can represent primates in inappropriate and unnatural situations, negatively affecting their welfare. Although the pictures and videos may look cute, they further contribute to the exploitation of great apes and other primates. Virality of these primate posts increases the demand for pet primates. Unfortunately, it leads people to want a cute little primate for themselves. It can also create a skewed idea of the status of the primate population in the wild. If a primate can be bought as a pet, do you think most people know that that species may also be endangered in the wild? Perhaps the sharing of the content is contributing to their numbers decreasing, but how well known is that among the general public?
When scrolling through your social media feed, be mindful of the sharing content that may negatively contribute to the primate pet trade. Learn more about primates in social media here.
Social media may be a resource for great ape and primate conservation, but it can also be a hindrance to their preservation in the wild. Pictures and videos of primates circulate on social media every day, and often go viral from people “liking” and “sharing” the content with others. Before clicking the “like” or “share” button, people need to ask themselves whether the content is really supportive of primates and their needs. Popular social media posts can represent primates in inappropriate and unnatural situations, negatively affecting their welfare. Although the pictures and videos may look cute, they further contribute to the exploitation of great apes and other primates. Virality of these primate posts increases the demand for pet primates. Unfortunately, it leads people to want a cute little primate for themselves. It can also create a skewed idea of the status of the primate population in the wild. If a primate can be bought as a pet, do you think most people know that that species may also be endangered in the wild? Perhaps the sharing of the content is contributing to their numbers decreasing, but how well known is that among the general public?
When scrolling through your social media feed, be mindful of the sharing content that may negatively contribute to the primate pet trade. Learn more about primates in social media here.