Nowhere to Escape
The wildlife warriors saving Borneo’s orangutans
The
baby orangutan grabs his mother’s limp body, shaking it with both hands, before taking off. We follow at full speed, aware of the need to catch him by hand – darting an animal this young could kill it. Just as he dashes up a nearby tree, Dr Laura Benedict grabs him by the legs. The orangutan – eyes bulging in terror, mouth stretched to capacity – begins to scream; terrible, brain-piercing shrieks.
Dr Benedict asks me to take over as she prepares the sedative. I grab the orangutan under his arms and struggle to contain the terrified, writhing ape, just about keeping his sharp canines away from Dr Benedict, as she administers the injection. “It’s OK darling, it’s OK, it’s OK,” reassures the vet, rubbing his belly as the drugs take hold.
We place the wilting infant back where he belongs: with his mother. I sit alone, trying to make sense of what just happened, as the apes are loaded onto a van. Dr Benedict makes a call to her colleagues at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sepilok to let them know the news: two more are on their way.
A modern-day Borneo
A visit to modern-day Borneo – once little more than a thick rainforest duvet, home to a Noah’s Ark-esque collection of animals and a smattering of tribes – throws up a few surprises. It is easier to find Mcdonald’s than it is macaques, Crocs are mostly found on peoples’ feet, and your “Welcome to the Jungle” may be from Axl Rose at karaoke.
Over the last 50 years, Borneo’s population has doubled to around 19 million people. In its largest cities, rapid development has paved the way for high-rise apartments, five-star hotels, shopping malls, and rows of bars and restaurants. Travel a little further afield and rural areas swell with people, properties and production. Add 222 species of mammals, 420 types of birds and 15,000 plant species to the picture and you have all the ingredients needed for human– animal conflict. With more mouths to feed, even the most exotic animal finds itself on the menu. The friendlier creatures are kept in cages, or traded on the black market as exotic pets. Other animal species are targeted for their body parts.
These changing systems spell bad news for orangutans, too. A study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2014 claims that as much as 69 percent of their remaining habitat may be unsuitable by 2080, with an overall reduction of suitable habitat of around 15 percent by the end of the century. Fluctuating rainfall patterns affect the availability of food sources and negatively impact the flowering stages of fruit. And when food is in scant supply, females are less likely to conceive.
It is a bleak picture for the island’s most famous primate, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded to “critically endangered” in July 2016, due to populations of Pongo pygmaeus falling by more than 60 percent between 1950 and 2010. above left The Wildlife Rescue Unit’s rangers attend to a rescued pangolin in Sepilok, Sabah above right A female orangutan just after being released back into the wild after rehabilitation