They live in Sumatra and Borneo.
They eat leaves and plants.
Some people might describe them as looking cute and cuddly.
They are orange in colour and look a bit like us!
Can you guess what I’m talking about? Orangutans! I firmly believe that we should save these amazing animals from extinction. They are beautiful creatures, and are our closest living relatives but unfortunately, they are getting close to extinction because of issues largely caused by humans. We need to take action and fight for these vulnerable animals.
They are getting extinct
Firstly, the population of orangutans is declining dramatically. Their population is dropping because of habitat loss from people cutting down trees to make farms. Orangutans are having to cram into smaller areas and eventually there will be nowhere for them to live. Orangutans depend on their habitat for their survival. Their habitat provides them with food, water and shelter. Forests in Borneo and Sumatra are also being cut down so that the wood can be sold to build houses, furniture or made into paper. The poor orangutans are occasionally hunted and eaten by the indigenous people of Borneo as well as migrant loggers who don’t have a problem eating primate bushmeat. Orangutans are primarily threatened by human activity and development. Researchers have said that the Borneo orangutans are classified as endangered and the Sumatran orangutan is classified as critically endangered. There are approximately only 7,300 Sumatran orangutans and 45000 to 69000 Bornean orangutans left on Earth today.
Close to Humans
The orangutan is the closest living relative to humans, in fact we share 97% of our DNA. Fascinating right? So wouldn’t we want to keep this creature around? The word orangutan comes from the Malay word orangutan meaning human or person of the forest. Features shared by both orangutans and humans include enameled molar teeth with flat surfaces, greater asymmetries between the left and right side of the brain and similarly shaped shoulder blades. A hole in the roof of the mouth that was supposedly unique to humans also presents in orangutans. We can also learn a lot about how to raise children by studying how they look after their kids. Research has found that they are the most deeply loving, supportive nurturing and devoted mothers. Their spatial skills and ability to read body language is also far more advanced than us humans. In the vanishing lowland of borneo, new research is underway to uncover the unique cultural behaviors in wild orangutans.We may be able to learn more about the evolution of human beings.We are able to get a fascinating look into history and the way different primates evolved leading to us humans who exist today.We can learn about them and it may help us live and survive in the future.
People from all around the world have killed around 1 million orangutans yet not one of them has killed a human. Is it far that we kill them when they haven’t done any harm to us? Thankfully, people are setting up projects to save these fascinating creatures and bring their population back to the right level. SAVE THE ORANGUTANS!
References
My brain
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