New orangutan population
found in Indonesia
Conservationists have discovered a
new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of
Indonesia _ perhaps as many as 2,000 _ giving a rare boost to one
of the world's most endangered great apes.
A team surveying forests nestled
between jagged, limestone cliffs on the eastern edge of Borneo
island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a "substantial"
number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at
the U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy.
"We can't say for sure how many,"
he said, but even the most cautious estimate would indicate
"several hundred at least, maybe 1,000 or 2,000 even."
The team also encountered an adult
male, which angrily threw branches as they tried to take photos,
and a mother and child.
There are an estimated 50,000 to
60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 90 percent of them in Indonesia
and the rest in neighboring Malaysia.
The countries are the world's top
producers of palm oil, used in food, cosmetics and to meet growing
demands for "clean-burning" fuels in the U.S. and Europe. Rain
forests, where the solitary animals spend almost all of their time,
have been clear-cut and burned at alarming rates to make way for
lucrative palm oil plantations.
The steep topography, poor soil
and general inaccessibility of the rugged limestone mountains
appear to have shielded the area from development, at least for
now, said Meijaard. Its trees include those highly sought after for
commercial timber.
Birute Mary Galdikas, a Canadian
scientist who has spent nearly four decades studying orangutans in
the wild, said most of the remaining populations are small and
scattered, which make them especially vulnerable to
extinction.
"So yes, finding a population that
science did not know about is significant, especially one of this
size," she said, noting that those found on the eastern part of the
island represent a rare subspecies, the black Borneon orangutan, or
Pongo pygmaeus morio.
The 700-square mile (2,500-square
kilometer) jungle escaped the massive fires that devastated almost
all of the surrounding forests in the late 1990s. The blazes were
set by plantation owners and small-scale farmers and exacerbated by
the El Nino droughts.
Nardiyono, who headed The Nature
Conservancy's weeklong survey in December, said "it could be the
density is very high because after the fires, the orangutans all
flocked to one small area."
It was unusual to come
face-to-face with even one of the elusive creatures in the wild and
to encounter three was extraordinary, he said, adding that before
this expedition, he had seen just five in as many years.
Conservationists say the most
immediate next step will be working with local authorities to
protect the area and others that fall outside of national parks. A
previously undiscovered population of several hundred also was
found recently on Sumatra island, home to around 7,000.
"That we are still finding new
populations indicates that we still have a chance to save this
animal," said Paul Hartman, who heads the U.S.-funded Orangutan
Conservation Service Program, adding it's not all "gloom and
doom."
Noviar Andayani, head of the
Indonesian Primate Association and Orangutan Forum, said the new
discoveries point to how much work still needs to be done to come
up with accurate population assessments, considered vital to
determining a species' vulnerability to extinction.
"There are many areas that still
have not been surveyed," she said, adding that 18 private
conservation groups have just started work on an in-depth census
based on interviews with people who spend time in the
forests.
They include villagers and those
working on plantations or within logging concessions.
"We hope this will help fill in a
few more gaps," said Andayani, adding that preliminary tests in
areas where populations are known indicate that the new
interview-based technique could provide a clearer picture than nest
tallies.
"Right now the information and
data we have about orangutans is still pretty rudimentary," she
said.
Some experts say at the current
rate of habitat destruction, the animals could be wiped out within
the next two decades.
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