Orang-utan numbers halved in just 16 years

Hunting and habitation destruction by oil palm, paper, logging and mining industries helped drive a drop of about 50 per cent in Borneo’s orang-utan population from 1999 to 2015. Research in the journal Current

Biolog y calculated a population decrease of about 148,500 during the 16-year period and projected another drop of 45,000 by 2050.

Deforestation was only part of the threat faced by orang-utans. Around 70 per cent of the loss in Borneo’s populations may have resulted from orang-utan killings by people in forested areas, the researchers said.