Deforestation+Animal Killing=The Near Death of a Species

If we do the math for Science Daily's article named, "In 16 years, Borneo lost more than 100,000 orangutans", Borneo has lost more than 6,000 orangutans every year, meaning about 17 orangutans die every day. The World Wildlife Fund estimates the current population of Bornean Orangutans to be about only 104,700 individuals, making a loss of more than 100,000 devastating for the population. And as the study in which this article takes its data from took place from 1999 to 2015, meaning that now, in 2018, this number could be much higher. The main cause of this loss was from the destruction of their natural habitat, the rainforest, in favor of palm oil, wood, and wood-based products. Using the age old strategy of "Saying No with your Wallet" sounds like a good idea to stop this, but the area that had the greatest loss of Bornean Orangutans were not these deforested areas, but rather areas where logging restrictions were already in place to save the environment.

According to Serge Wich, a head researcher on this project, he states that, "Orangutans are flexible and can survive to some extent in a mosaic of forests, plantations, and logged forest, but only when they are not killed." So if this is true, why are then so many Orangutans dying off? That is because destroying their homes isn't the only thing greedy humans are doing to hurt them, they are also straight up killing them as well. Another researcher, Maria Voigt, told this to Science Daily, "The largest number of orangutans were lost from areas that remained forested during the study period. This implies a large role of killing."  More studies have to be done to understand why people are killing off orangutans in the first place, but one thing is for sure. If nothing is done, an entire species will be wiped out by greed. If you want to help, spread the word, especially if you have friends in Borneo. Indonesia and Malaysia are already creating plans to conserve the Orangutan population, but it will likely take a long time unless someone speaks out about it.

Initial Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180215125032.htm
World Wildlife Fund Estimate: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/orangutan

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