Threats
TRRRRRR TRRRRRRRR TRRRRRRRR TRRRRRRRR...."What's that sound"? the baby orangutan asks, "Oh" the mother ape sighs "That's our house being destroyed... again".
For apes , losing their homes has become part of their strenuous daily lives inflicting death on 1 in every 4 apes. Believe it or not, our favourite brands are up to this. About 50% of what you find in your local grocery store includes palm oil. Tim Tams, Smiths (Chips), Milo, and even hair products! You name it!
Scientists have been estimating the amount of years left for orangutans until extinction, according to the current decrease rate. So at this rate, Orangutans will be extinct by 2023!
"Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans have been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest, living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being at harmony with the environment"- Jane Goodall
Palm Oil Plantations
Most of us consume palm oil every day intentionally and unintentionally. However, did you know that by continuing eating palm oil products we slowly dwindling the population of apes. Companies which use palm oil find it that the habitat of of our relatives (orangutans) is the PERFECT place to grow their palm trees. Selfish companies are taking advantage of these poor countries such as Indonesia, and buying government land with unimaginable amounts of money which the government can not deny because of its financial state. After buying land and planting palm trees, they then they extract the oil out of the leaves however after a batch of trees are done they buy more land cut down more trees and decrease the ape population.
Deforestation
Deforestation has been one of the most common threats to orangutans. This may link to palm oil plantation which will destroy thousands of orangutans. this may seem very little to us but to them, it means everything. Homes demolished, food sources destroyed and orangutans lives lost. In the past ten years, forests for the greats apes to live have decreased largely because of palm oil industries.
'Agricultural Pests'
These apes are known to be rather cheeky, resourceful and clever! Unfortunately they are dying because of it. Forest owners who own farms which contain food regularly find themselves 'plants' due to these cheeky animals. They have no food to eat so the savage whatever they can find... but some people get FED up! These 'smart' aka. stupid people decide to take matters into their hands and severely injure (and sometimes kill) the orangutans aka. your relatives! Simply because they are surviving? In our opinion, forest owners should either know when and where to plant their crops rather than taking their anger out on these so called 'pests' or need to understand that already that these animals rate of extinction and that people are trying to save them!
Orangutans may be hunted for food either from ignorance of the law, or in disregard of the law because of hunger and/or poverty. As human settlement encroaches on the forest, often wild orangutans are tempted to eat the fruit in human gardens and farms – this creates conflict and often the orangutans are, somewhat understandably, thought of as pests. When adult females are killed, the babies can be sold, and the skulls of the dead may be used to create souvenirs that are sold illegally throughout Kalimantan.- Orangutan.com