(MY) orangutans study

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Monday June 19, 2006

 

Orang - utans are not loners, says study

 

*KOTA KINABALU:* Orang-utans may be just as clannish as fellow primates, the

chimpanzees and gorillas.

 

This initial result of a study on the genetics of orang-utans at the Lower

Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary dispels the notion that they are solitary

animals.

 

" For the first time, our genetic data demonstrates that rang-utans tend to

live in communities of individuals, " Kinabatangan Orang-Utan Conservation

Project (KOCP) director Dr Marc Acrenaz said.

 

He said studies on 35 orang utan living along Sungai Kinabatangan showed

that all the males and females were related to each other.

 

He said more research was needed throughout Sabah to determine if the

individual community pattern was only site specific or a more general

feature of the species.

 

Dr Acrenaz, his wife KOCP director Isabelle Lackman Acrenaz and Dr Benoit

Goossens of Cardiff University are co-leading the genetic study together

with Universiti Malaysia Sabah and a local-based non-governmental

organisation HUTAN in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department.

 

The British-based Darwin Initiative for Survival of Species is funding the

study.

 

Dr Acrenaz said research assistants from Sukau and local villagers had been

collecting information on orang-utans. These include types of food available

in the forest, feeding behaviour, movements, social interaction and

population densities.

 

" We have collected faecal samples of the orang-utan and also photographed

and assigned proper names for identification, " he said, adding that these

samples provided valuable information on the inter-relationships of the

orang-utan.

 

Dr Goossens said that the study supported the assumption that both sexes of

the orang-utan tend to remain in the same area, often their natal area.

 

The study was recently published in the journal *Molecular Ecology*.