Running Wild Ch 5-6

Dear Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, 

I’m writing to you to express my concern about the declining orangutan population. As the president of Indonesia you are responsible for the species that live in your country. They’re numbers are dwindling right before you eyes and I fear that you are not doing enough. The orangutan is just one of the animals that is dying out in Indonesia. Need I list the others? 

The orangutan is an incredibly smart species. Their name literally means ‘people of the forest’. They are one of our closest relatives. Would you let the human race die out? I’m guessing the answer is no. But letting the orangutans die out is practically the same thing.

Orangutans are dying out for many different reasons. Orangutans have lost an estimate of well over 80% of their habitat in the last 20 years. This is absolutely horrible news. And I am disgusted by it. Another huge habitat loss came from the 1997-1998 fires. As you can see they hardly have any place to make their homes. All the forest cut down to make room for trees that produce palm oil and other products are being put where their homes should be. 

However its not just natural disasters that are killing the orangutans, sadly humans are too. Humans have many reasons for killing animals. For some it is the only food they can get, for others it is greed. People are greedy. They want orangutan pets and orangutan fur. It is cruel, horrible and unnecessary. At the moment there are between 50,000-65,0000 left in the wild. An estimate of around 2,000-3,000 orangutans killed every year coming to around 5-8 orangutans a day. At the rate we’re going there will be no orangutans left in the wild in fifty years time. 

Another huge orangutan killer affects other animals to, including humans. This is caused by both Mother Nature and humans. What is this? Climate change. Climate change is everywhere. The ozone layer is growing weaker and thinner everyday. Our air is polluted, our seas are full of rubbish, our jungles are dying. While people are doing as much as they can to stop this, there are people who don’t try. They just keep killing orangutans and throwing trash wherever they fell like it. 

We know of three orangutan species. But how many do you think have died out unnoticed by us? 

From, Harper, New Zealand