Hindustan Times (Delhi)

‘Newly-discovered Orangutan species rarest great ape’

- Agence France-presse

JAKARTA: A new species of orangutan has been discovered in the remote jungles of Indonesia, immediatel­y becoming the world’s most endangered great ape, researcher­s said on Thursday.

“It’s the first declaratio­n of a new great ape species in about 100 years,” Ian Singleton, co-author of the study and director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservati­on Programme, said.

The species, called Tapanuli orangutan, lives in the Batang Toru forest on Sumatra island, and numbers only about 800 in total, making it the most endangered great ape in the world, Singleton added.

Until recently, scientists thought there were only two geneticall­y distinct types of orangutan, Bornean and Sumatran.

But in 1997 researcher­s at the Australian National University discov- ered an isolated population of the great apes in Batang Toru, south of the known habitat for Sumatran orangutans, and scientists began to study the group to see if it was a unique species.

Researcher­s studied the DNA, skulls and teeth of 33 orangutans killed in human-animal conflict before concluding that they had indeed discovered a new species, giving it the scientific name Pongo tapanulien­sis.

Outwardly, the Tapanuli orangutan bears a closer resemblanc­e to its Bornean counterpar­t, with cinnamon-coloured fur that is frizzier than its Sumatran relative. It also has a “prominent moustache”, according to the findings published in the journal Current Biology.

Its skull and bone structure are slightly different from its relatives and so is its behaviour, with the long calls of male orangutans lasting on average 21 seconds longer with a greater number of pulses.

“The Batang Toru orangutans appear to be direct descendant­s of the initial orangutans that had mig rated from mainland Asia, and thus constitute the oldest evolutiona­ry line within the genus Pongo,” said co-author Alexander Nater of the University of Zurich. The Tapanuli orangutan species became isolated from its Sumatran relatives about 10-20,000 years ago, Nater added, eventually settling in the Batang Toru forest.

But its tiny population is under severe threat from mining, agricultur­al encroachme­nt, illegal logging and a proposed hydroelect­ric dam, which would flood up to eight percent of its habitat.

The authors of the study said conservati­on measures need to be urgently implemente­d.

“Orangutans reproduce extremely slowly, and if more than one percent of the population is lost annually this will spiral them to extinction,” co-author Serge Wich, professor at Liverpool John Moores University, said.

 ??  ?? The species, called Tapanuli orangutan, lives in the Batang Toru forest on Sumatra island AP
The species, called Tapanuli orangutan, lives in the Batang Toru forest on Sumatra island AP

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