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Friday, November 4, 2011

Struggle for survival between Borneos and orangutans for food

On November 4, 2011, the world reverberated with shock news about the death of 691 orangutans, slaughtered by starving villagers in the rain forests of Kalimatan, Borneo. A resulting study involved about 7,000 natives in 698 villages.

Desperately needing food, the hungry villagers of Borneo have lost their usual source of food as starving animals have moved onto nearby farmland to look for food. With a world population of 7 billion people, horrific sights like this will become common place scenarios.

According to the Daily Mail in the UK, "Miss Suci Utami Atmoko, a field co-ordinator with The Nature Conservancy, said hunger was the main reason for killing and eating the orang-utans.' Some residents were desperate and had no other choice but to kill them after spending three days hunting for food.' "

However, there are other reasons why the Borneo villagers kill these great apes other than food: using the meat for traditional medicines; fear of the apes attacking their villages; and to sell the surviving orangutan babies to pet markets.

The survey by the Nature Conservancy was done from April of 2008 to September of 2009. Additional groups involved in it was the World Wildlife Fund, the People's Resource and Conservation Foundation Indonesia, and the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation. The results showed that approximately 70% of the villagers were aware the orangutan s were not only protected but were an endangered species.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Struggle for survival between Borneos and orangutans for food
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