November 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm
More news about Malaysia’s most famous animal relative, the orang utan. Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains. It is part of a conservation project by by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), in collaboration with French grassroots non-profit organisation HUTAN and the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project.
Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains
Why is connectivity so important in orang utan conservation? Because without these bridges, orang utans would be isolated into ever smaller pockets, fragmenting the population, thus lowering the possibility of a self sustaining population. These isolated pockets are more vulnerable to various risks, man-made and natural, and run the risk of being wiped out in any disaster.
What are the ways that you can help conserve our country’s iconic inhabitant?
Read the full article below:
Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains.
Rope bridges built by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), in collaboration with French grassroots non-profit organisation HUTAN and the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP), are now enabling the orang utan to get cross these waterways.
HUTAN-KOCP co-director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said oil palm companies are being asked to help by not planting oil palm all the way down to the river but to set aside at least 500 metres along the banks as wildlife corridors.
“In May 2010, at the conclusion of the State Action Plan workshop, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun stated that he would like to see plantations, particularly those located in the Kinabatangan, to set aside at least 500 metres along riverbanks as wildlife corridors,” Ancrenaz said in a statement here today.
With support from various partners, such as Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Borneo Conservation Trust, Shining Hope Foundation and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), more rope bridges with different designs have been built over the years, including by using old fire hoses from Japan.
“This was to see if different designs would be used by the orang utan, and what we found is they seem to prefer to use the simple two-line rope bridges,” said Ancrenaz, who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah from 1998.
During a visit to Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, Ancrenaz found that rope bridges used at the zoo’s orang utan enclosure were of much lighter material and yet able to withstand ultraviolet rays.
“Our partners from Chester Zoo have come to Sabah, bringing with them these rope material so that we can pull down the old bridges and put up new bridges along the sites we know where the orang utan are using the rope bridges, as well as at new identified areas,” he said.
With assistance from Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd (RRSB), a team of professional tree climbers based in Sabah, the new rope bridges are being built and the old bridges pulled down or repaired.
In all, seven rope bridges have been put up and/or repaired with the collaboration of the SWD, RRSB, Chester Zoo, DGFC, HUTAN-KOCP and Barefoot Sukau Lodge.
“Using rope bridges is a quick fix but eventually the most ideal solution would be to reconnect the forest, and we are all working on this. And when I say ‘we’ I mean everyone from the governmental sector to environmental NGOs and, crucially, the oil palm industry,” Ancrenaz said.
He said genetic modelling, carried out jointly by HUTAN-KOCP, SWD, Cardiff University and DGFC, has shown that unless action is taken urgently to reconnect these populations, most of the current isolated orang utan within the Lower Kinabatangan will become extinct “within our lifetime”.
Surveys carried out by SWD and HUTAN-KOCP show that there are 700 orang utan within the protected and non-protected areas of the Lower Kinabatangan.
Sabah has an estimated 11,000 orang utan, making it the stronghold of the Malaysian orang utan population, with 80 per cent of the nation’s wild orang utan population located in the state.
SWD director Dr Laurentius Ambu said reconnecting the forest via forest corridors or patches of forest is the next crucial step in addressing this issue for the orang utan as well as other wildlife in Sabah.
“Even though it will be an expensive and long process, reconnecting isolated populations which were originally linked together will ensure the long-term survival of not only Sabah’s orang utan but other unique species such as the Bornean Pygmy Elephant, the sunbear, the clouded leopard and many more,” he said.
Source: Bernama
Orang Utan Conservation
November 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm
More news about Malaysia’s most famous animal relative, the orang utan. Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains. It is part of a conservation project by by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), in collaboration with French grassroots non-profit organisation HUTAN and the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project.
Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains
Why is connectivity so important in orang utan conservation? Because without these bridges, orang utans would be isolated into ever smaller pockets, fragmenting the population, thus lowering the possibility of a self sustaining population. These isolated pockets are more vulnerable to various risks, man-made and natural, and run the risk of being wiped out in any disaster.
What are the ways that you can help conserve our country’s iconic inhabitant?
Read the full article below:
Wild orang utan in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah are being taught the ropes, literally, to evade isolation owing to the logging of the tall trees which have served as their natural bridges across small rivers and large drains.
Rope bridges built by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), in collaboration with French grassroots non-profit organisation HUTAN and the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP), are now enabling the orang utan to get cross these waterways.
HUTAN-KOCP co-director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said oil palm companies are being asked to help by not planting oil palm all the way down to the river but to set aside at least 500 metres along the banks as wildlife corridors.
“In May 2010, at the conclusion of the State Action Plan workshop, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun stated that he would like to see plantations, particularly those located in the Kinabatangan, to set aside at least 500 metres along riverbanks as wildlife corridors,” Ancrenaz said in a statement here today.
With support from various partners, such as Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Borneo Conservation Trust, Shining Hope Foundation and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), more rope bridges with different designs have been built over the years, including by using old fire hoses from Japan.
“This was to see if different designs would be used by the orang utan, and what we found is they seem to prefer to use the simple two-line rope bridges,” said Ancrenaz, who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah from 1998.
During a visit to Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, Ancrenaz found that rope bridges used at the zoo’s orang utan enclosure were of much lighter material and yet able to withstand ultraviolet rays.
“Our partners from Chester Zoo have come to Sabah, bringing with them these rope material so that we can pull down the old bridges and put up new bridges along the sites we know where the orang utan are using the rope bridges, as well as at new identified areas,” he said.
With assistance from Ropeskills Rigging Sdn Bhd (RRSB), a team of professional tree climbers based in Sabah, the new rope bridges are being built and the old bridges pulled down or repaired.
In all, seven rope bridges have been put up and/or repaired with the collaboration of the SWD, RRSB, Chester Zoo, DGFC, HUTAN-KOCP and Barefoot Sukau Lodge.
“Using rope bridges is a quick fix but eventually the most ideal solution would be to reconnect the forest, and we are all working on this. And when I say ‘we’ I mean everyone from the governmental sector to environmental NGOs and, crucially, the oil palm industry,” Ancrenaz said.
He said genetic modelling, carried out jointly by HUTAN-KOCP, SWD, Cardiff University and DGFC, has shown that unless action is taken urgently to reconnect these populations, most of the current isolated orang utan within the Lower Kinabatangan will become extinct “within our lifetime”.
Surveys carried out by SWD and HUTAN-KOCP show that there are 700 orang utan within the protected and non-protected areas of the Lower Kinabatangan.
Sabah has an estimated 11,000 orang utan, making it the stronghold of the Malaysian orang utan population, with 80 per cent of the nation’s wild orang utan population located in the state.
SWD director Dr Laurentius Ambu said reconnecting the forest via forest corridors or patches of forest is the next crucial step in addressing this issue for the orang utan as well as other wildlife in Sabah.
“Even though it will be an expensive and long process, reconnecting isolated populations which were originally linked together will ensure the long-term survival of not only Sabah’s orang utan but other unique species such as the Bornean Pygmy Elephant, the sunbear, the clouded leopard and many more,” he said.
Source: Bernama
Tags: conservation efforts, Kinabatangan Orang Utan Project, malaysia, Orang Utan, Orang Utan Conservation, sabah, Sabah Wildlife Department, Wildlife Conservation