GENETIC STUDIES OF ORANG UTANS

[Guest guest]

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=39733

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS

--

Habitat loss wiping out Orang Utans fast

Kota Kinabalu: A three-year international genetic study has detected a

" catastrophic collapse " in orang-utan populations along the

Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah .

 

The ape is the mascot of Sabah Tourism which sells Sabah to the world

as a Premier Nature Destination.

 

" The study shows a high risk of extinction of the Orang-utan in the

close future if this decline goes unabated, " said wildlife geneticist

Dr Benoit Goossens of Cardiff University, one of a team of researchers

from Sabah Wildlife department, UMS, French primatologists Marc

Ancrenaz, Isabele Lackman Ancrenaz, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique (CNRS), France, and funded by the Darwin Initiative for

the Survival of Species, UK. Goossens said 200 orang utans were

identified using genetic markers called microsatellites and used the

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) information to stimulate population

history and detect evidence of a population decline.

 

" The major threat is linked to forest destruction and oil palm

plantation development while illegal killing also contributed to the

decline, " he said.

 

The findings are being published online in the international

scientific journal entitled " Public Library of Science " (PloS

Biology), Dr Goossens said.

 

" The collapse occurred within the past 100 years and most likely

within the past decades - coinciding with massive deforestation which

began in the 1890s and accelerated in the 1950s and 1970s, " Goossens

said.

 

" This is the first time that a recent and alarming decline of a great

ape population - brought about by man - has been demonstrated, dated,

and quantified using genetic information, " Dr Goossens noted.

 

Earth has entered what the UN called the " Great Ape Crisis " where all

four of the world's great apes, namely orang utans in Asia as well as

chimpanzees, gorillas and the bonobos in Africa, considered man's

closest relatives, are threatened with extinction.

 

The scientists collected hair from tree nests 30m above ground and

faeces found under nests or near orang utans encountered along the

Kinabatangan River.

 

To no one's surprise, deforestation was singled out as the main

culprit for the population collapse but there is a definite time frame

to hang on to when all that happened - 100 years since the 1890s,

accelerated in the 1950s and 70s.

 

The grim picture reversed earlier optimism triggered by a wildlife

survey carried out by the Department of Wildlife and Danida three

years ago which found Sabah still had 11,000 wild Orang-utans - much

larger than expected.

 

A major uncertainty on the future of the Orang-utan, stressed

Laurentius Ambu, Deputy Director of Sabah Wildlife Department, is that

60% or about 5,000 individuals in Sabah are living outside of the

network of protected areas.

 

These areas happened to be the lowland dipterocarp commercial forests

under the Sabah Foundation concession , which are exploited under

natural forest management.

 

The lure of palm oil revenues and now Bio-diesel seems hard to resist.

Comments at public forums suggest senior Yayasan Sabah officials

remain ambivalent on committing Orang-utan-rich natural forests for

" permanent " protection.

 

" The Orang-utan cannot survive in industrial tree plantations and this

population will disappear forever if these forests are converted to

oil palm agriculture.

 

As such, Dr Ancrenaz said a " priority " of the Orang-utan's future is to

" identify mechanisms " that will secure both Sabah's economic

development and conserve the Orang-utan habitats at the same time.

 

He cited the Reduced-Impact Logging practices that are implemented at

Deramakot Forest Reserve by the Sabah Forestry Department which proves

that sustainable logging practices are compatible with orang-utan long

term survival.

 

" Ideally, all forests should follow the sustainable logging practices

that are in place in Deramakot Forest reserve, " he said.

 

" The animals will show enough genetic diversity to stabilise, if

immediate steps are taken to reconnect remnant forest patches and halt

further deforestation, " added Laurentius.

 

" Otherwise, humans will have relegated the fabled 'man of the forests'

to the realm of memory - or a life behind bars in a zoo, " Laurentius

said.

 

The Orangutan is still one of Sabah Tourism's strongest trump cards to

differentiate Sabah from the rest of the competing nature

destinations.

 

The enduring popularity of Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation is proof.

More recently, together with the villagers of Sukau, the Sabah

Wildlife department created a community-based orang utan eco-tourism

project (Red Ape Encounters Sdn Bhd) with Tadun Lias as Director,

within the newly-created Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.