Orangutans being Hacked to Death
10/29/97
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Headline: Orangutans being Hacked to Death
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 10/29/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
SYDNEY, Oct 30 (AFP) - Desperate villagers in Kalimantan
(Borneo) are hacking to death orang-utans fleeing raging forest
fires and foraging for food among crops, the World Wide Fund for
Nature said Thursday.
The world's largest conservation organisation said in a
statement released here that more than 1,000 orang-utans had been
affected by the fires and "several hundred" killed in the Kalimantan
jungles.
"Villagers, who are suffering from famine and serious
respiratory ailments, are so desperate that they are killing the
orang-utans, who are fleeing the forests and foraging in their
fields and gardens," WWF International species information officer
Elizabeth Kemf said.
"It is getting more difficult to buy fruit and vegetables. The
lakes are drying up. As their suffering increases, so does their
resentment of animals they would not normally kill."
According to the WWF, villagers are using chainsaws to cut down
trees harbouring the frightened apes then hacking to death the
females.
The babies are being sold into the illegal wildlife and pet
trade.
At least 138 orang-utans were now on a waiting list to be
admitted into a rescue centre being run with some WWF support. The
centre already is sheltering 120 animals, some of which had been
treated for near fatal wounds.
Kemf said a team of WWF scientists and other Indonesian
non-government organisations planned emergency surveys to assess
fire damage and its effects on wildlife.
"It is not just a loss of orang-utans and other threatened
species, but the permanent damage being done to their protected
forest homes," WWF Indonesia spokesman Barita Manullang said.
She said organisations like WWF were trying to help but urged
governments and international aid agencies to contribute.
In the past 20 years, about 80 percent of orang-utan habitat has
been lost.
The large, long-armed apes are only found on Borneo and the
Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Australia Wednesday announced in Jakarta it was giving 300,000
dollars (213,000 US) to help overcome the land and forest fires
gripping Indonesia.