SOME very smart simians live in Southeast Asia. I am of course referring to orangutans; our orange, hairy and wise cousins are the only great apes that live solely in Asia. They are native to Malaysia and Indonesia. In the wilds of Indonesian Borneo, these gentle “people of the forest” have even been observed using mime to communicate with human researchers and other orangutans.
I told you they were smart. Don’t judge all orangutans by that smoking one that’s been getting all the attention lately. Actually, don’t even judge her, but you can judge zoo-goers, or at least the ones who throw cigarettes at her to keep her smoking.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia; pic: Daniel Murdiyarso/CIFOR
We are working with the zoo’s management to try and move her to an island, in a big lake in the middle of the zoo, away from the other orangutans and where visitors can’t toss her any more cigarettes. Until we get approval from the zoo to move her, a guard has been placed outside her cage to make sure she doesn’t smoke and she is undergoing therapy. She will have to go cold turkey.Sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it? Read more in the Australian.
Besides smoking, orangutangs have it pretty rough at the moment due to both legal and illegal development projects including the palm and paper industries and generally ignorant and/or cruel human behavior. To counteract some of the damage we do, visiting and volunteering at orangutan sanctuaries spreads awareness of the plight of these remarkable and critically endangered apes.
If you are concerned that tourists gawking at orangutans may also be contributing to their demise as a species, you are right to be worried. However, where nature tourism and conservation thrives, illegal logging is far less likely and it is both legal and illegal logging that is destroying the ecosystems that the orangutan depends on.
For more information on ways to help orangutans in Indonesia visit the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) website.
For a list and explanation of places to observe wild orangutans in both Malaysia and Indonesia see this post on the Lonely Planet forums.
Though a far cry from seeing these glorious apes in the wild and quite frankly, probably a bit different from going to a sanctuary, students from Holland have been visiting and volunteering to take care of orangutans at an animal park in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. So far this year two batches of Dutch high schoolers learned orangutan care, cleaned cages and fed fruit to the orangs.
From the Jakarta Post:
Koesoemo said Yogyakarta Animal Park was deliberately chosen for the students to stay at because of the park’s excellent conservation service. The conservation service is helping to rescue endangered animals, mostly seized from illegal owners by the local Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA), before releasing them back to their natural habitats.If you’re more interested in the legends or mysteries of the Indonesian jungle, maybe you’d like to search for the fabled orang pendek, meaning “short man” in Malay. Indonesian folklore and contemporary eyewitness accounts are full of stories about the orang pendek, a small ape-like creature who walks upright and lives on the forest floor, unlike the tree-dwelling orangutan.
sanctuary in Malinau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia; pic: Eko Prianto/CIFOR
In closing, to see just how smart or human-like orangutans are, check out my favorite orangutan video – yes, I have a favorite orangutan video!
Here’s David Attenborough on the BBC Earth program hanging around a female orangutan who uses a canoe, washes socks and does a bit of DIY with her kids. No kidding.
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