Distinctive Population of Orang-utans Threatened by Logging Upsurge
7/3/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Distinctive Population of Orang-utans Threatened by Logging
Upsurge
Source: New Scientist
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 3, 1999
Byline: Martin Brookes
A UNIQUE POPULATION of tool-using orang-utans is being threatened by
an upsurge in logging around the Suaq Balimbing research station in
the north of Sumatra, Indonesia. The apes fashion sticks into probes
with which they extract honey and insects from trees, and dig out
seeds from fruits protected by stinging hairs.
Orang-utans are found only in Borneo and Sumatra, and 90 per cent of
them have been lost over the past century. The total population was
estimated at less than 40 000 even before the latest upsurge in
logging and the forest fires that have ravaged Borneo since 1997.
The Suaq Balimbing orang-utans live in an area of tropical forest
teeming with biting insects. "It's a horrible place for research, a
fetid swamp, but it's orang-utan paradise," says primatologist Ian
Singleton of the University of Kent at Canterbury, who has recently
returned from the area. Not only can the orang-utans wield tools but
they are more gregarious than most.
The research station lies within the Gunung-Leuser National Park.
This is part of the Leuser Ecosystem, an area of tropical rainforest
extending over 2.5 million hectares. But the resignation of
Indonesia's President Suharto in May last year has created an
unstable situation.
"Because of the political uncertainty, everyone is making the most of
what they can get," says Singleton. Loggers have been openly flouting
regulations and removing many of the large trees that provide the
orang-utans with their food.
The apes are especially vulnerable to habitat disturbance. Even
selective logging has a drastic impact on populations. Females are
almost totally sedentary, and when large feeding trees are removed
they become malnourished. According to Kathryn Monk of the Zoological
Society of London, a scientific co-ordinator with the Leuser
Management Unit, half of the research area has already been affected
by logging. Even if the apes survive, she fears that the disturbance
could endanger their unique social behaviour and tool use.
Some research students have even been threatened by loggers. "In the
past week, we've had meetings with local people and local and
provincial government. Everyone is giving their support," says Monk.
"But in the longer term, we are concerned about encroachment
throughout the whole park."