International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 50 | Page 11

Diet - About 60% of an orangutan’s diet consists of fruit. However, they also eat bark, honey, flowers, insects, young leaves, vines, and the inner shoots of plants. Their preferred food is the fruit from durian trees, called the “king of fruits,” which they find in the wild or in cultivated gardens. This large fruit tastes like a sweet, cheesy, garlic custard, and has a very pungent smell. Orangutans eat the flesh, discard the skin, and spit out the seeds, therefore playing a vital role in seed dispersal. In some regions, orangutans occasionally eat soil, ingesting minerals that may neutralize the high quantities of toxic tannins and acids in their primarily vegetarian diet. Conversely, orangutans in Sumatra occasionally eat lorises, small nocturnal primates, taking them out of the tree holes they sleep in. Rainforests - about their habitat. Orangutans live on the Southeast Asian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, in both primary and secondary tropical rainforests. A primary rainforest is one that remains in its natural state, while a secondary rainforest has been disturbed in some way, resulting in a less developed canopy structure. Annual rainfall varies from about 3000 mm in Sumatra, to 4300 mm in Borneo. Temperatures on Sumatra range from 17°C to 34.2°C, and from 18°C to 37.5°C in Borneo, with high humidity on both islands year-round. Orangutans are usually found in lowland swamp forests, which provide high quantities of food throughout the year. Peat swamps show the second highest concentration of orangutans; while dipterocarp forests, whose fruit supply varies from year to year, show only a minimal population of orangutans. Sumatra contains lowland swamps and wide, mountainous regions, with elevations of up to 1500m. Orangutans in Sumatra are found mostly in the lowland dipterocarp and peat swamp forests. Higher elevations, which contain less tree diversity, show smaller populations of orangutans. The high density

of orangutans in the dipterocarp forests of Sumatra, may be the result of mast fruiting, which occurs every two to ten years. Mast fruiting is a phenomenon in which a large number of trees simultaneously produce fruit for no apparent reason. During this time, orangutans overeat, storing additional fat in their bodies. This inclination to overeat may be why captive orangutans often struggle with obesity. Borneo consists largely of peat swamp and dipterocarp forests. Orangutans on Borneo are usually not found at elevations higher than 1000m, however, they still reside in the remaining forested habitat The main threats: destruction of the rainforest due mainly to encroaching palm oil plantations, illegal logging, fires and poaching. Nations: Borneo is divided between three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei The orangutans used to live spread out over South East Asia all the way to what is now southern China. Most of the land was then covered with huge continuous rainforest areas and the orangutans could roam freely over large distances. Today the logging and the human expansion have limited the untouched rainforest to very little intact areas. The numbers of orangutans are diminishing because of human impact. The threat comes mainly from three human activities: destruction of the forest, fires and poaching. Large parts of the original forests of Asia have disappeared. They have been replaced by farm land, palm oil plantations, cities and villages. Huge areas are also disappearing as the forest companies are illegally cutting down the trees, without permits from either the government or the local populations, who depend on the forest for their survival. When creating plantations it is common to first burn the land. Over the years these planned fires have often spread uncontrollably, leaving an enormous destruction in their wake. Many orangutans are killed by the fires as they have no chance of escape. The poaching of the orangutan is

another obstacle for the survival of the species. The infants are sold as exotic pets while the flesh from the adults is eaten. Despite the fact that it is illegal to kill, capture or sell orangutans there is a lot of money to be made-- which makes it very difficult to come to terms with the problem. Rainforests - Surface of Indonesia: 1,192,684 sq miles Forest: 550.000 sq miles Rate of logging: Ca 12,500 sq miles per year. Threat: Forest destruction and fires. Illegal logging: Estimated to constitute 50 - 88% of all logging. Only in Borneo you can find 10 15,000 different species of flowers and around 3000 different kinds of trees. The same diversity applies to the animals and a large number are endemic to this area and can be found nowhere else. Every year new animal and plant species are discovered and scientists barely have time to investigate before they disappear forever. The Indonesian rainforest is the second largest in the world with an area of nearly 546.806 square miles. This is about 10% of the world’s rainforest and is twice the size of Texas or nearly the size of Alaska. Logging and fires are making the forest disappear at an unsustainable rate. Hundreds of animals and plants are disappearing because of this and entire ecosystems are transformed into desert. One of the biggest problems in Indonesia is the illegal logging that is being fueled by the international demand for cheap timber. There are different opinions as to the extent of the illegal logging, but is it clear that more than half of all logging in the country is illegal. Saving orangutans is built on the premise of protecting and preserving the rainforest. This is not only decisive for the orangutans but also for thousands of other threatened animal and plants species. Please help the orangutans today

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