(MY) Orang utans face extinction

[Guest guest]

Threat to orang utans' future - New Straits Times*25 Sep 2006*

Jaswinder Kaur <jaswin

 

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*KOTA KINABALU: The orang utans in Kinabatangan could die out in less than

50 years.

*

Scientists made this prediction yesterday after creating a model which

charted the survival of the mammals based on factors such as forest cover

and the life history of the animals. The scientists recently had a half-day

session where the model was created and discussed.

 

Kinabatangan has 1,000 orang utans, or about nine per cent of the total

11,000 orang utan population of Sabah.

 

Cardiff University conservation geneticist Dr Benoit Goossens said the 1,000

orang utans were in 11 isolated sub-populations.

 

" The model shows if nothing is done, most of these sub-populations will be

extinct in less than 50 years, " Goossens said.

 

His colleague Prof Michael Bruford said the workshop's modelling exercise

tested the impact of different management actions and selected those which

could help sustain the orang utan population in Kinabatangan.

 

" During the modelling exercise, we tested the potential effects of managed

translocations and of establishing forest corridors along the northern and

southern banks of the Kinabatangan river.

 

" Our model incorporated information on orang utan life history, the number

of individuals estimated in each forest fragment, based on ground and

helicopter surveys, current genetic health of the population and potentially

catastrophic events such as severe droughts, " Bruford said in a Press

statement yesterday.

 

The workshop was jointly organised by the Sabah Wildlife Department,

Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project

(KOCP) and Cardiff University with funding from the Darwin Initiative.

 

KOCP's Dr Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz said there was an urgent need to create

corridors to connect fragmented forests.

 

" However, establishing corridors is a slow process and extinction may still

occur in the meantime.

 

" Only a combination of forest corridors and translocations will help

eliminate extinction risks and control in-breeding in the Kinabatangan orang

utan population.

 

" One finding of the exercise is that the size of the available habitat has

to be increased to allow the overall population to grow, " she said.

 

Sabah Wildlife Department director Patrick Andau said data on demographics

and genetics of the mammal provided strategies for scientists and government

departments to model the future of orang utans.

 

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Monday September 25, 2006 - The Star

 

Orang utans face extinction

 

Cardiff University conservation geneticist Dr Benoit Goossens said the

primates were found in 11 genetically isolated sub-populations in the Lower

Kinabatangan region.

 

" If nothing is done, most of these sub-populations will be extinct in the

short and medium terms of less than 50 years, " Dr Goossens said after a

seminar on the future of the orang utans in the Lower Kinabatangan region on

Friday.

 

Another orang utan researcher Dr Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz, co-director of

the NGO HUTAN, based in Sukau, Kinabatangan said there was an urgent need to

reconnect sub-populations by creating forest corridors between existing

forest fragments toprevent extinction of the primates.

 

" But establishing these corridors is a slow process and extinction may still

occur in the meantime. Only a combination of forest corridors and

translocations will succeed in eliminating all extinction risks and

controlling inbreeding in the Kinabatangan orang-utan population, " Dr

Lackman-Ancrenaz said.

 

She said there was also a need for the orang utan habitat to be increased to

enable the overall population to grow to a viable size.

 

Sabah Wildlife Department director Patrick Andau said that while it was

looking at ways to connect the Lower Kinabatangan orang utan population to

the populations of Segaliud Lokan/Deramakot (North) and Ulu Segama/Malua

(South), it would simultaneously conduct managed translocations.

 

The seminar funded by the British-based Darwin Initiative for the Survival

of Species saw researchers conducting models on the short, medium and long

term future of the primates. It was organised by the Sabah Wildlife

Department, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, NGO HUTAN and Cardiff University

(UK).

 

The models were based on information gathered about the primates, including

their demographics, genetics and density.