Travels in Borneo, the land of the orang-utan

IT was somewhere between a refreshing beer and just before the drum beats of Canadian band Iskwew that I looked around and realised how at home I was in a remote cultural village in the middle of Borneo.

It was the three-day Rainforest World Music Festival - a tribal Big Day Out - that hooked me on Malaysia.

It only took an hour to drive from the bustling city of Kuching to the Sarawak Cultural Village where the festival was in full swing with music workshops, sizzling food stalls and performers tuning up.

We stayed at the Kuching Hilton, an imposing hotel of 315 guest rooms perched on the Sarawak River.

The city was laid at our feet and we could explore the waterfront, pose with the city’s bizarre giant cat statues and brush up on local history in the Sarawak Museum.

A leisurely 275km journey, with stops at rubber, cocoa and pepper farms and a short boat ride, took us to the Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, managed by Hilton, its only jungle property.

Its 11 accommodation blocks are based on traditional Borneo longhouses.

Tours upstream the Ulu Air river in motorised longboats led us to the start of a humid but memorable trek under the rainforest canopy of the Batang Ai National Park, home to protected wildlife like orang-utans, hornbills and gibbons.

We were on the lookout for the notoriously shy ‘rangas’, but the only sign of them was their droppings in the middle of our track. Still, it was nice to know they were there, high up in the trees, watching us.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Travels in Borneo, the land of the orang-utan

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Sabah losing flagship wildlife species

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is losing her flagship species, said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

According to him, there are now less than 11,000 orangutans, 6,000 proboscis monkeys, 2,000 elephants, 500 bantengs and 40 rhinos in Sabah.

On the other hand, the human population in the State is increasing.

“We are 3.2 million today in Sabah. In 2025, it is predicted that we will be 4.2 million, an increase of 30 percent. I don’t want to think that at the same time we will have a decrease of 30 percent in our wild populations: 7,700 orangutans, 4,200 proboscis monkeys, 1,400 elephants, 350 bantengs and 28 rhinos,” he said at the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium 2012 yesterday.

Masidi also expressed his disgust over the killing of 5,000 kilograms of pangolins that were smuggled out of Sabah last month.

He added that he had instructed his permanent secretary to conduct an immediate probe on the issue and said that poaching was a big problem.

Continue reading at: Sabah losing flagship wildlife species
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Win a week's holiday in Borneo, Malaysia

You could win a 7 day/6 night holiday for you and a friend to Sarawak, Borneo courtesy of Malaysia Tourism and the Telegraph Adventure Travel Show.

On this amazing trip to Malaysia you will discover a wealth of surprises, eclectic cultures and natural wonders.

Start your journey at the incredibly city of Kuching - the capital city of Sarawak. A modern city with all the creature comforts of a growing metropolis, yet one that still retains its old charms with a picturesque waterfront, sidewalk cafes, colonial historical buildings, museums, markets, and pockets of gardens and parks.

As this fantastic Malaysian trip moves on, you will get to visit such places as the wonderful Semenggoh Wildlife Centre which works to rehabilitate Orangutans, and you will experience the Iban Longhouse and meet the headhunters! The Iban tribe is the largest ethnic group in Sarawak.

They will welcome you to their home, the longhouse, and experience their communal lifestyle. There are opportunities to learn how to dance their traditional dance “Ngajat”, play their musical instruments, fish using fish nets, follow them to the farm, join a hunting trip, see traditional tattooing, and discover their culture and beliefs - if you have the time that is!

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Win a week's holiday in Borneo, Malaysia

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Could orangutans help scientists understand human obesity?

Indonesian orangutans may help scientists understand the underlying reasons for eating disorders and obesity in humans, according to new research from an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers University.

Erin Vogel, who recently published the results of her five-year study in the journal Biology Letters, looked at how orangutans survived during times of extreme food scarcity. The extensive research is the first time a scientist has explored the relationship between the apes and their protein deprivation, according to a news release from Rutgers.

“There is such a large obesity epidemic today and yet we don’t really understand the basis of the obesity condition or how these high-protein or low-protein diets work,” Vogel said. “I think studying the diets of some of our closest living relatives, the great apes, may help us understand issues with our own modern-day diets.”

In her field studies, Vogel observed that the orangutans added extra pounds only during periods of high caloric and protein intake. “The orangutans put on fat when caloric intake is greatest, and this also coincides with a period of high protein in the diet,” Vogel wrote in an e-mail to New Jersey Newsroom. “What (our) study does is demonstrate that when caloric intake is high, orangutans are able to store fat due to excess calories in their diet.”

When the calorie levels dropped, the apes started burning their stored fat and breaking down muscle tissue. “For orangutans, it is caloric intake, not necessarily the amount of carbohydrates or protein or fat, that seems to be most important for weight gain or weight loss,” she continued.

Vogel, an assistant professor of anthropology at the School of Arts and Sciences, gathered the data for her study by examining urinary metabolites and nitrogen stable isotopes.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Could orangutans help scientists understand human obesity?

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How Borneo orangutans avoid starvation in lean times

They use body fat and muscles as energy until bounty of food is available, study shows

Orangutans in Borneo can survive potential starvation by using their body fat and muscles as energy until a bounty of food is available, researchers find, adding that the results may someday shed light on the eating habits of our earliest ancestors.

The findings may also speak to various low-carb, high-protein diets, because essentially weight comes down to caloric intake for these orangutans as it does us, the researchers say.

In Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia, forests go through periods of high fruit yield, where around 80 percent or more of the plants will produce fruit all at once. Following these "masting" periods, the forests endure stretches of sparse fruit availability that can last anywhere from two to eight years. To survive in this unpredictable environment, orangutans put on fat by gorging on fruits when they're available, and then live off of these reserves until the next masting year.

Researchers have now learned that the orangutans start to metabolize their own muscles for protein after these fat reserves are gone.

"In this stage there is evidence of tissue wasting, the same kind that you would observe in anorexic patients," said Erin Vogel, an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers University and lead author of the new study.

Vogel and her colleagues also learned that the primates avoid extreme protein deficiency by eating tough foods, such as leaves and bark, using highly adapted molars, not unlike those found in modern humans and our hominin ancestors. By comparing the physical properties of orangutans' teeth and food with those of other primates, scientists may someday be able to tease out the diets of our ancestors, Vogel said.

The importance of protein

Protein is important for the growth and reproduction of all animals, but few studies have investigated how wild animals maintain protein balance, the researchers said. This question is especially interesting for species in Borneo because of the island's seemingly inhospitable fruit-crop cycles.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: How Borneo orangutans avoid starvation in lean times

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Welcome to the jungle

The trees sounded, leaves clapping together like applause to announce the orangutans' arrival.

We had been waiting with more than 100 spectators at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Center, about 40 minutes drive from Sandakan town, which is next to a nature reserve in Malaysian Borneo.

We could hear, but couldn't see, them. Suddenly, one blasted across the tree canopy.

"An orangutan and a baby!"

Everyone cheered as an orangutan mother clutching a tiny tike landed on the feeding platform.

More came. The playful orangutans weren't shy. They showed off, jumping around and performing aerobics on a rope.

Others at the feeding platform turned their backs to the crowd for a little privacy.

The twice-a-day feeding sessions are part of the rehabilitation program to help the animals make a smooth transition from captivity to the wild.

Semi-independent orangutans on the forest's outskirts come to the feeding platform until they discover full confidence in finding their own food in the jungle's interior.

We journeyed further into the forest to search for more wild animals. We discovered a solitary orangutan in a tree nearby.

The largest arboreal, or tree-dwelling mammal, makes fresh sleeping nests from branches and foliage in the crowns of trees every night. They make simpler nests for daytime naps.

"Orangutan" comes from the Malay words for "man" (orang) and "of the forest" (utan).

"Man" is an apt word choice. Orangutans share 96.4 percent of human genes.

The orangutan population has shrunk over the past 40 years because of disruptive human activities, such as excessive logging and clearing land for plantations.

We had a little adventure on our way out of the forest.

We saw two, then three, long-tailed macaques marching toward us along the boardwalk rails. Then there were four, and five and, suddenly, a long line of long-tailed and pigtailed macaques and their babies hopping toward us single file.

I immediately recalled what our guide, Johnny, had told us about macaques.

"Macaques are social animals, who live and move in big groups. If you come across them, don't make direct eye contact and don't show your teeth if you smile. Macaques see these as intimidating and may attack."

As the procession of macaques captivated our attention, a huge long-tailed male appeared out of nowhere, screeching at us.

Johnny advised us to calmly and quickly move away from this frightening male.

We fled the forest and returned to town.

The town has two main roads and few traffic lights but many roundabouts. Sandakan's low-rises and old markets are reminiscent of 1960s' Hong Kong, when Hong Kong investors and immigrants flew in and turned it into what's colloquially known as "Little Hong Kong".

Sandakan's rich history, nature and wildlife have since made it a post-cruise destination in Sabah.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Welcome to the jungle
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Sabah rehabilitates degraded forests to conserve orang utan

KOTA KINABALU: The forestry department is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate degraded forests in Sabah's east coast Ulu-Segama Malua Forest reserve in efforts to conserve the orang utan.

Sabah Forestry Department has awarded reforestation contracts to four contractors to rehabilitate some 800ha of degraded forest in north Ulu Segama.

The area would be replanted with indigenous tree species and wild fruit trees within the next 12 months, Sabah Forestry director Datuk Sam Mannan said Sunday.

He said the area was part of the 2,400 hectares to be restored jointly by WWF-Malaysia and Sabah Forestry Department.

The northern Ulu Segama area was discovered in 2007 to have a large population of orang utan, which were surrounded by palm oil plantation to the north and the Segama River to the south.

He said the orang utan population was entrapped in a poor secondary logged forest environment, with limited source of food and shelter.

Mannan said the objective of the programme was to improve the forest condition through replanting of indigenous tree and wild fruit tree seedlings.

He said this would ensure, in years to come, that the forest will regenerate rapidly to provide fruits and nesting sites for the orang utan population and ensure their survival in such a small and isolated forest area.

Continue reading at: Sabah rehabilitates degraded forests to conserve orang utan

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Orang utan conservation in Sabah getting help from Federal government

KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government is ready to help Sabah in its conservation of orang utan by financially assisting the state to acquire land between areas planted with oil palm.

This included buying parcels of land, largely owned by oil palm plantations, to be used as forest corridors, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

“I read in the papers about the difficulties faced by orang utan in moving through the oil palm plantations.

“I view this seriously. Perhaps the Sabah Government can work with us to acquire the lands.

“The Government will support whatever the state is doing, including with funds,” he said after launching the Roundtable Meeting on Sustainable Palm Oil ninth roundtable meeting here yesterday.

Dompok pointed out that Malaysia had made great strides in the palm oil industry, amidst environmental allegations, which he dismissed as baseless.

“For example, a report titled The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: State of Emergency claimed that oil palm plantations were expanding so rapidly in our rainforests that there would be no virgin forest by 2022.

“It also claimed that an equivalent of 300 football fields were deforested every hour for plantations.

“I am of the view that all these allegations are based on fear due to the competitiveness of palm oil,” he said.

Dompok said that despite this, Malaysia was concerned about unsubstantiated allegations on the displacement of the orang utan.

Continue reading at: Orang utan conservation in Sabah getting help from Federal government

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Lower Kinabatangan has lost 300 orang-utans since 2004

KINABATANGAN: The Lower Kinabatangan has lost about 300 orang-utans in seven years due to forest isolation and loss of corridors, according to Dr Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director of HUTAN – Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (KOCP).

“What we are seeing with our latest surveys within theLower Kinabatanganis a clear population decline of the orang-utans in this area,” said Ancrenaz who hoped such issues would add to urgency to events such as the Roundtable for Sustainable Oil Palm (RSPO) being held in Kota Kinabalu for the first time this week.

The biggest threat to orang-utan and other wildlife populations in Sabah today is fragmentation. What this means is that agriculture development, primarily oil palm, has created small islands of forest, which are isolated and completely surrounded by human-made landscape.

“Because it is difficult for wildlife to move from one forest patch to the next, this situation leads to inbreeding and eventual population decline, which is what we are witnessing today in theLower Kinabatangan,” explained Ancrenaz.

Ancrenaz points out that this issue is inherently related in part to the oil palm industry and as this industry has much resources they should take real action to rectify the situation.

“We can still improve the situation for theLower Kinabatangan’s orang-utan and other wildlife by actually replanting and planning for actual wildlife corridors or patches of forest to support wildlife movement between protected or forested areas,” said Ancrenaz.

This according to Ancrenaz, has been paid much lip service by big organisations but in reality only local communities have been successfully carrying out such work.

“Except for Wilmar/PBB Oil which is replanting 382 hectares with 50 meters on the banks on the river, we mostly see signboards and newspaper articles but when you go to the ground you find that in reality there is more talk than actual viable replanting taking place,” he said.

Perhaps, the money the Malaysian government is spending for oil palm promotion such as the recent allocation of RM24 million for the Malaysian Oil Palm Council could instead be used for establishing real corridors and patches of forest in the Lower Kinabatangan,” said Ancrenaz.

Continue reading at: Lower Kinabatangan has lost 300 orang-utans since 2004

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Orang-utan mum snapped smiling as she lovingly cradles her dozing child

It is one of a collection of images that capture the apes’ human-like behaviour as they go about their daily lives.

In another, the nine-month-old – called Thor – is also pictured playing with a leaf in the arms of his mother, Tutut.

‘They are very human-like in their gestures, glances and general behaviour,’ said photographer Fiona Rogers.

‘They can work you out – they study you and try to figure out who you are and what you are thinking.

‘It felt quite eerie to be with an ape that was very intelligent and deliberate in its thinking.’

Ms Rogers and fellow photographer Anup Shah captured the heartwarming scenes over three weeks in Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia. As well as looking into the world of Tutut and Thor, the pair followed a male orang-utan as he waded his way through some water. Just like a human, he raises his arms as he negotiates his route.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Orang-utan mum snapped smiling as she lovingly cradles her dozing child

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Will Orangutans Become Extinct Before the Conservation Community Gets Its Game on?

There is nothing cuter than a baby orangutan with its tussle of red hair bedecking a mostly bald head and big brown inquisitive eyes sparkling with wisdom, curiosity, and soulfulness.

Visiting orangutans in the wilds of Borneo or Sumatra tops my bucket list and it is clear I am running out of time to translate that dream into reality. A report detailing orangutan interactions with humans in Indonesia was released last week and is making international news.

The report shows that nearly 700 orangutans were slaughtered by local villagers in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo. While the findings of the research are terribly sad, they are not terribly shocking. Similarly, the conservation community's response to the survey is predictable: a call for the opening of more conservation areas and stricter punishment of orangutan killers.

This call to action is standard operating procedure for thousands of conservation workers and millions, if not billions, of conservation dollars. As a conservation expert, I am all too familiar with the battle cry of the protected area.

The concept is simple: we need to set up a network of safe havens for the world's most vulnerable species. In other words, keep animals safe by keeping people out. However, this solution is seriously flawed and doomed to failure for several reasons. In many cases, individuals existing on the brink of survival will resort to desperate measures to feed their families. Under such dire circumstances, the borders of a protected area are rarely a meaningful deterrent.

As Suci Utami Atmoko, a field coordinator in Indonesia notes, hunger was the main reason for killing and eating the orangutans. 'Some residents were desperate and had no other choice but to kill them after spending three days hunting for food,'. As a conservationist, I find it inconceivable that I would, under any circumstances, kill an orangutan. As a mother, I find it not only possible but extremely plausible that I would do whatever it takes to feed my children after watching them suffer from hunger for days on end.

I am not alone in this regard; in the case highlighted here, a full 70% of the villagers questioned knew the orangutans were a protected or endangered species when they killed them.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Will Orangutans Become Extinct Before the Conservation Community Gets Its Game on?

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Orangutan habitat restoration efforts in Sabah bear fruit

By Catharine Goh

There is hope yet for Borneo's most iconic animal, the orangutan. Recently several images of orang utans building nests in replanted trees were captured by WWF-Malaysia in the once-degraded but newly restored area at the northern part of Ulu Segama Malua Forest Reserves in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

In fact, such efforts to rehabilitate wildlife habitat which were initiated by the Sabah Forestry Department has given hope that the wildlife population in the forest will increase before long.

Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan has expressed satisfaction upon seeing that the reforestation efforts are helping the orangutans settle in the forest reserves.

"The best for the survival of the species is to have well-managed forests as a home, with a mixture of native tree species being planted to enhance the quality of wildlife habitat and food sources, especially for the orangutan," he enthused.

He said the declaration of restoration efforts in Ulu Segama Malua Forest Reserves on March 15, 2006 is strategically linked to the largest endangered population of the Bornean orangutan, subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio, in Sabah.

The Ulu Segama-Malua Sustainable Forest Management programme, covering an area of 241,098 hectares (ha), was initiated by the Sabah state government and is jointly managed by the department and Yayasan Sabah for the conservation and rehabilitation of habitat for endangered wildlife.

The department has partnered WWF-Malaysia in reforestation efforts within 2,400ha of the NUS area since 2008.

Dr Rahimatsah Amat, the Chief Technical Officer (Borneo programme) of WWF-Malaysia, was delighted to see that the orang utan conservation efforts in Ulu Segama Malua were bearing fruit.

"The orangutan is the largest arboreal (tree-living) animal in the world. They spend most of their time in trees - feeding, sheltering and travelling through the forest canopy from one tree to another," he noted.

"Without trees, it would be difficult for orangutans to survive," he said, adding that he hoped to see the orang utans continue utilising the restored forest area, which has more replanted trees for food, shelter and travel.

Dr Rahimatsah said his research and monitoring team was already seeing some exciting results, reporting evidence of much wildlife starting to return to the restored areas of the forest - not just orangutans but also other wildlife such as the Clouded Leopard, Sun Bear and many more endangered species.

"There was a herd of wild Borneo Pygmy Elephants that passed through our reforestation site early this year, but fortunately they didn't cause any major damage towards the replanted trees," he said.

On the other hand, the elephants have left their dung at the replanted site as a tremendous natural fertiliser, Dr Rahimatsah added.

A video clip of an orangutan swinging on replanted trees can be viewed at WWF Malaysia's Youtube site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO-roPfjcP4

Dr Rahimatsah further stated that "we could not have done it without the collaboration from the department and Yayasan Sabah, as well as our generous donors who have always been a part of our conservation effort".

Funding for the reforestation came from WWF-Germany, WWF-United Kingdom, WWF-Netherlands and WWF-Japan, as well as private sector organisations such as Adessium Foundation, Itochu Group, Marks & Spencer, Seng Heng and Aeon Jusco.

To date, 1,096ha of degraded forest in the forested reserves have been replanted out of the total 2,400 ha which was allocated to WWF-Malaysia for reforestation by the department.

The Ulu Segama Malua Forest Reserve was awarded the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate by the Scientific Certification System (SCS) at the FSC General Assembly held at Kota Kinabalu in June 2011.

The certification would mean that the home for orang utans is better conserved.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin Sunday
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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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Borneo's Endangered Orangutans Pay Price of Progress

Just a week after the last known Javan rhino was reported dead in Vietnam, a new study shows that orangutan hunting is on the rise in one of that animal's last refuges, the Borneo region of Kalimantan. With swathes of forests being cleared for industry, the endangered primates are entering villages and plantations for food - leading villagers to kill them as pests or to eat them.

The conversion of Kalimantan’s forests into concessions for logging, pulp and paper and mining has long been a threat to the survival of the orangutan. But it is not the only one.

Dr. Erik Meijaard is the chief scientist behind the survey conducted by The Nature Conservancy, an environmental advocacy group. He says that shrinking forests go hand in hand with the mounting slaughter of endangered orangutans by local communities.

Dr. Meijard says bushmeat is part of the local lifestyle, so even if hunters are not looking for orangutans, they will eat them when they catch them.

“A lot of people like orangutan meat. I mean, people describe it as a sweet meat that has a good taste apparently. So I think that once people do have an orangutan they are quite happy to eat it… The average hunter in Borneo will be targeting pigs and deer. They are the biggest animals with the most meat. But sometimes if you don't get anything and you can catch an orangutan you'll take it.”

Conducted in more than 600 villages in Kalimantan, the survey showed that orangutans are sometimes deliberately targetted.

Local villagers told the researchers that oil palm companies have paid them to eradicate the endangered animals. The companies see them as pests, explains Dr. Damayanti, a lecturer in Ecology at the Agriculture Institute in Bogor who was involved in the study.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Borneo's Endangered Orangutans Pay Price of Progress

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Rope bridges a critical lifeline for orang utans in Sabah

KINABATANGAN, Sabah - The construction of seven bridges in eight years has made a difference in the effort to ensure the survival of the orang utans here.

This temporary measure has helped the primates and other species to move within forests fragmented by man-made rivers.

Sabah Wildlife director Dr Laurentius Ambu said ultimately, however, reconnecting forests via corridors or patches of forests was the next crucial step to better preserving wildlife in the state.

"Even though it will be an expensive and long process, reconnecting isolated populations which were originally linked together, will ensure the long-term survival of not only orang utans but other unique species, such as the Bornean Pygmy Elephants, the sunbears, the clouded leopards and many others," he said.

Surveys carried out by the department and non-governmental organisation, Hutan-KOCP (Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Programme), shows that there are 700 orang utans within protected and non-protected areas of the lower Kinabatangan.

Sabah has an estimated 11,000 orang utans, which is 80 per cent of the nation's wild orang utans.

However, due to agricultural activities, many forests are fragmented, trapping animals such as the orang utans because of their inability to swim.

To tackle this problem, rope bridges were built for orang utans to cross small rivers and large drains since 2003, and also to connect pockets of isolated forest, said Azri Awang of Hutan-KOCP.

In the past, orang utans would use old-growth forests as "natural bridges" over small rivers.

However, at present, orang utans no longer have this luxury since most of the tall trees in such forests have been logged.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Rope bridges a critical lifeline for orang utans in Sabah

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Teaching Orang Utan The Ropes To Evade Isolation

KINABATANGAN -- Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains.

Rope bridges built by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), in collaboration with French grassroots non-profit organisation HUTAN and the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP), are now enabling the orang utan to get cross these waterways.

HUTAN-KOCP co-director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said oil palm companies are being asked to help by not planting oil palm all the way down to the river but to set aside at least 500 metres along the banks as wildlife corridors.

"In May 2010, at the conclusion of the State Action Plan workshop, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun stated that he would like to see plantations, particularly those located in the Kinabatangan, to set aside at least 500 metres along riverbanks as wildlife corridors," Ancrenaz said in a statement here today.

With support from various partners, such as Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Borneo Conservation Trust, Shining Hope Foundation and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), more rope bridges with different designs have been built over the years, including by using old fire hoses from Japan.

"This was to see if different designs would be used by the orang utan, and what we found is they seem to prefer to use the simple two-line rope bridges," said Ancrenaz, who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah from 1998.

During a visit to Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, Ancrenaz found that rope bridges used at the zoo's orang utan enclosure were of much lighter material and yet able to withstand ultraviolet rays.

"Our partners from Chester Zoo have come to Sabah, bringing with them these rope material so that we can pull down the old bridges and put up new bridges along the sites we know where the orang utan are using the rope bridges, as well as at new identified areas," he said.

With assistance from Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd (RRSB), a team of professional tree climbers based in Sabah, the new rope bridges are being built and the old bridges pulled down or repaired.

In all, seven rope bridges have been put up and/or repaired with the collaboration of the SWD, RRSB, Chester Zoo, DGFC, HUTAN-KOCP and Barefoot Sukau Lodge.

Continue reading at: Teaching Orang Utan The Ropes To Evade Isolation
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Couple set to save orangutans in Borneo

An adventurous couple from South Lanarkshire are getting ready to save orangutans from cruelty on a rainforest trek through Borneo.

Angela Wood and Iain McArthur leave Scotland on November 3 for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)’s Borneo Jungle Explorer trek.

The Bothwell duo will have to journey through the Kalimantan rainforest and climb mountains in the heat and humidity in order to reach the Nyaru Menteng sanctuary.

The Nyaru Menteng sanctuary is the world’s largest orangutan sanctuary and rehabilitation project and contains over 1000 traumatised, orphaned and injured orangutans.

Keen hillwalkers Angela and Iain have been following a four month fitness regime in preparation for the trip.

Angela, a hypnotherapist, said: “I was quite excited about the trip up until this week when I’ve been getting lots of injections and having to get mosquito nets and wear in my boots.

“It's all getting so real - I'm concerned about the humidity and the heat, the closer I get to the actual trip the more I think about all the negatives, like the creepy crawlies and leeches which are a big problem.

“The mosquitoes are really bad and I’m taking lots of tablets for malaria at the moment, it’s not like mosquitoes in Spain or Tenerife, these have serious consequences.

“I know it will be worth it though. The sanctuary saves hundreds of orangutans and I can tell I’m going to cry when I get there. It will be very emotional.”

All the orangutans at the centre in Borneo are in need of physical and emotional care. Before arriving at the sanctuary many have been injured in machete attacks, rescued from the pet trade or found starving.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Couple set to save orangutans in Borneo
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'Civilised' orangutan store knowledge and pass it down between generations - just like humans

Many people think 'culture' is what divides man from the apes.

But a group of University of Zurich researchers have proved that orangutan societies can learn behaviour and pass it down through the generations, just like human cultures.

Orangutans in different areas of Sumatra and Borneo behave differently - and researchers were puzzled as to why.

But it turns out the differences are not down to genetics - instead, the 'local cultures' are learned and passed down among local groups of apes, similar to how people behave differently in, say, Aberdeen and Plymouth, or New York and Ohio.

The finding hints that the roots of human societies may go back for millions of years.

The roots of our culture could be shared with the roots of ape cultures.

The researchers analysed 100,000 hours of orangutan behaviour and genetically profiled 150 orangutans.

About a decade ago, biologists who had been observing great apes in the wild reported that behaviour 'changed' with geography, in a way that hinted that the apes had cultures that stored and passed on ideas.

The finding triggered an intense debate among scientists.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: 'Civilised' orangutan store knowledge and pass it down between generations - just like humans

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Oldest Sumatran orangutan in U.S. dies at age 56

Ginger, the oldest known Sumatran orangutan in the United States, was euthanized on Tuesday at the Sacramento Zoo to prevent further suffering from various age-related ailments. She was 56.

Born on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra in 1955, Ginger arrived in California's capital in 1984 after previous stints at zoos in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago, the Sacramento Zoo said.

"As the matriarch of the orangutan group, Ginger was a spectacular ambassador for wildlife. She inspired and motivated zoo visitors to take an active role in conservation," Leslie Field, the zoo's mammals supervisor, said in a statement.

Field described Ginger as "strong-willed."

Ginger had been treated for some time for a variety of age-related maladies, such as arthritis, the zoo said. More recently, neurological issues had impaired the ape's eyesight and coordination, and she was unable to move herself into her enclosure on Monday night.

Ginger, who had no offspring, is survived by two other orangutans at the zoo -- Makan, an 8-year-old male, and Cheli, a 29-year-old female.

The formerly oldest orangutan in captivity, Molly, died in May at the age of 59 at Tokyo's Tama Zoological Park. She was famous for her crayon drawings. Upon Molly's death, another orangutan at the Tokyo zoo, Gypsy, age 57, assumed the world's oldest title, according to news reports.

The oldest living orangutan in the United States is now Tia, a 55-year-old female residing at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas.

Continue reading at: Oldest Sumatran orangutan in U.S. dies at age 56

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The Borneo Story: The Rainforest

The sixth in the series of The Borneo Story by Tom Harrisson and Hugh Gibb in the late 1950s courtesy of The Doozer.

This episode documented the daily life of Dayak tribes living in the region. Insects, marine and plant life, and animals, including the endangered rhinoceros and orangutans in the rainforest are shown closeup.

The Borney Story: 'The Rainforest' from The Doozer on Vimeo.

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