Orangutans Face Death Casualties in Fires
10/4/97
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Headline: Orangutans Face Death Casualties in Fires
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 10/4/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
GLAND, Switzerland, Oct 4 (AFP) - Raging forest fires in
Indonesia are behind the deaths of 30 female orangutans and could
threaten the survival of tigers, rhinoceroses and elephants if they
are not put out, the World Wide Fund for Nature has warned.
The females died as a result of fires in Kalimantan, probably
shot as they left the forests so their babies could be taken as pets
or for sale into the illegal wildlife market, the WWF said in a
statement issued Friday.
Twenty-nine orphaned orangutans were found hungry and dehydrated
in several villages and alongside the roadwide after escaping the
forests, probably in search of food and water, the WWF said.
There are an estimated 30,000 of the long-limbed apes in
Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, and Sumatra, who face "serious"
threats to their future as their terrain dwindles away.
Satellite images of the two islands show "major forest
destruction" and only about two percent of their original habitat
remains, much of it in areas being ravaged by fire, Darmawan
Liswanto, who works at the WWF office Jakarta said.
Trade in the primates is banned by CITES, the convention which
governs and restricts international wildlife trade.
The Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses and the Sumatran tiger,
listed by The World Conservation union as "critically endangered,"
are in an equally perilous situation due to the pollution-belching
fires, the WWF said.
Indonesia has between 100 and 200 Sumatran rhinos and small
groups are in some of the burning areas.
The Javan rhino is the rarest rhino in Asia and the 60 that
still roam the Indonesian jungles are "extremely vulnerable to any
extraordinary event," the WWF said.
The Sumatran tiger is the last remaining species in Indonesia
after the Javan and Bali tigers were wiped out in the 1980s and
1940s respectively.
The Asian elephant and the Sun bear are other animals whose
future could be compromised by the fires, which have burned out of
control for two months.
Indonesian officials have said the fires have burned at least
70,000 hectares (172,900 acres) of forests and plantations but
sources with access to satellite photos put the figure at between
600,000 to 800,000 hectares.