Murdering Orangutans in Indonesia

Murdering Orangutans in Indonesia

A male orangutan was found dead by villagers in East Kutai district in Indonesian Borneo. His body had been riddled with  air gun pellets, some 130 shots in all. The ape had also been attacked with a machete. “We found pellets all over its body. There were also a number…

Bornean Orangurans self-Medicate

Bornean Orangurans self-Medicate

The orangutans of Borneo are among the smartest creatures on Earth. Yet just how astute they can be continues to surprise us. Take this bit of news: the apes, it turns out, self-medicate by using specific plants. Experts have observed forest-dwelling orangutans on the island treating inflammation of their joints…

NGOs: End the Abuse of Animals at Kemaman Zoo

NGOs: End the Abuse of Animals at Kemaman Zoo

Two Malaysian animal rights organizations are up in arms over what they say are the appalling conditions in which several animals are kept at Kemaman Zoo in Terengganu. Malaysian Friends of the Animals and Friends of the Orangutans are calling on the management of the zoo, which started operations in…

Let’s Run for Sharks and Orangutans in Sarawak

Come December 17, you can do something for the wild in Sarawak . . . in a hurry. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Run for the Wild event this year will kick off on Sunday at the Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, in Kuching. First launched in 2015, Run for…

A Third Species of Orangutan has been Identified in North Sumatra

A Third Species of Orangutan has been Identified in North Sumatra

In the highland forest of Batang Toru in North Sumatra live a small colony of orangutans. They are largely isolated from other orangutans. It turns out they’re not just any orangutans but an entirely different and hitherto unknown species of the great apes. So say scientists who have sequenced the…

Malaysian Palm Oil Company agrees to Rehabilitate 1,000 hectares of Peatland

Malaysian Palm Oil Company agrees to Rehabilitate 1,000 hectares of Peatland

If palm oil companies are known for something, it’s deforestation, not reforestation. Yet the Malaysian palm oil company Felda Global Ventures (FGV) is about to rehabilitate 1,000 hectares of peat forest in West Kalimantan, in Indonesia’s section of Borneo. The reason: pressure from consumers and environmentalists. “Corporate ‘no deforestation’ policies…

Thai Police seize two baby Orangutans smuggled in from Malaysia

Thai Police seize two baby Orangutans smuggled in from Malaysia

A routine police check of a Malaysian citizen’s vehicle travelling in the southern Thai border town of Hat Yai revealed two illegally transported passengers: a pair baby orangutans. Also in the car with the man were scores of turtles, which had been wrapped tightly in plastic tape so they could…

Orangutans Know when you Don’t Know

Orangutans Know when you Don’t Know

Orangutans are a lot like us. They also think a lot like us. A case in point: they can tell truths from lies. Scientists now have the evidence to prove it. German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology conducted psychological experiments with nearly three dozen great apes,…

A Dating App for lonely Orangutans

A Dating App for lonely Orangutans

An online dating site for lonely orangutans? Now there’s an idea! A Dutch zoo, in the city of Apeldoorn, has created a dating app for its resident orangutans as part of a captive breeding program. Researchers at the Apenheul Primate Park want to study the emotional responses of the apes when they are shown…

Baby Orangutans are Seized in Thailand

Baby Orangutans are Seized in Thailand

First came a report. Now comes a new case that confirms it. The report: According to a study by the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), an alliance of numerous NGOs and governments, thousands of great apes, including orangutans, have been trafficked over the past years. Since 2005, 1,800 of them have been…

Thus Spoke Rocky the Orangutan

Thus Spoke Rocky the Orangutan

Rocky likes to grunt – a lot. No, we don’t mean the iconic celluloid boxer played by Sylvester Stallone. He does like to grunt a lot too, but we mean Rocky the orangutan, who lives in the Indianapolis Zoo. Okay, you might say, so what? What if Rocky the orangutan…

An Orangutan and a Gibbon Hit it Off

An Orangutan and a Gibbon Hit it Off

Oftentimes the world seems to be all gloom and doom. Wars. Terrorism. Rampant corruption. Injustices. Unending ethnic strife. We just don’t seem to get along. So let an orangutan and a gibbon show us the way. That’s right: a pair of primates in Borneo can teach us a thing or…

Sabah’s Primate Hotspot is ‘under Threat,’ Leading Conservationist Warns

Sabah’s Primate Hotspot is ‘under Threat,’ Leading Conservationist Warns

Slow lorises are small nocturnal primates that forage in the foliage of tropical trees and sport the physiognomy of cute teddy bears. Proboscis monkeys are reddish-brown tree-dwellers famed for their unmistakably flamboyant sniffers that make them resemble crotchety cartoon characters. Agile gibbons are long-limbed arboreal acrobats celebrated for their swaggering…

Endangered Orangutans Suffer from Haze 2015

Endangered Orangutans Suffer from Haze 2015

The terrible costs of the massive forest fires currently raging through Indonesia are most often calculated in tons of CO2 emitted, acres of tropical forest destroyed, human suffering and economic loss.  These factors are indeed great, but there is another victim of this circumstance – the endangered Orangutan. Borneo, an…