HOLDING ON
Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan ONLINE Available on BBC iPlayer until 9 June
There are still a few days to catch this excellent film, the fourth in the new Natural World series. Heartbreaking yet inspirational, the documentary recounts the history of the deforestation that has emptied Borneo of trees since the start of large-scale logging in the 1960s, and the tireless efforts of International Animal Rescue to save and rehabilitate as many orphaned and injured orangutans as possible. Shockingly, recent research has revealed that up to 3,000 of these red apes are intentionally killed every year, and with the global demand for palm oil set to double by 2050, the struggle continues. “We’re wiping out our closest living relative,” says Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology, “which isn’t very smart for a species that has the gall to call itself Homo sapiens – the ‘wise one.’”