#yearofthemonkey

The Orangutan, the voice of the endangered primates

The Orangutan is the voice of the endangered primates. Even with all the conservation campaigns and available information about illegal palm oil plantation, this specie is still a part of the 2016 Red list.

The Orangutan is semi solitary and arboricole, adult individuals live alone once mature enough, but the mothers spend 8 years with their offspring to teach them the rules and dangers of the forest.

They eat more than 500 species of plant! They spend almost all their life in the trees, and have high cognitive abilities comparable to the other great apes; they make tools in the wild and have their own culture! Some techniques have been seen only in Borneo for example, passing their knowledge from one generation to the other. For many reasons, Orangutans remain a mysterious species; they are called the gardeners of the forest, playing a vital role for biodiversity.

With an estimated decline of 50% of the global population during the last 60 years, a loss of 15.5 million hectares of forest (24% of total forest area) was recorded between 1985 and 1997 in Sumatra and Kalimantan…

But helping them is simple: Boycott palm oil products. Look at the ingredients in your food, shampoo, beverage… And make the right choice!

The Hainan gibbon

Hainan gibbons live only on Hainan island, in the south of China. At first their were considered a subspecie of the Eastern black crested gibbons, but their fur and vocalisations make them unique.

The Hainan gibbon is active during the day, eats almost only fruits, like figues for example. This specie is arboreal and the females give birth to only one offspring every two years!

In the past 45 years, almost 80% of the population has disappeared, due to hunting, habitat lost and also due to the fact that they only live on one island in particular. Curently only 20 mature individuals are still alive. The Hainan Gibbon is the most critically endangered primate of the world with only 25 individuals left living in a 16km² territory ...

When it first was discovered, Hainan gibbons lived throughout the whole of the island, but now the entire population is gathered in a reserve, the Bawangling Nature Reserve. This creates problems of mating, food ressources, impossibility to face a possible natural disaster and so on.

If this specie ceases to exist, it would be the first primate specie to disappear since 1700…