Malaysia: Orang utan need quality forests

The Star 8 Apr 12;

KOTA KINABALU: A wildlife study has reaffirmed the need for large swaths of forests for the orang utan to survive.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said the findings by Malaysian, British and Swiss researchers were further proof that the orang utan needed high-quality natural forests.

“Ultimately, a sufficient network of high-quality natural forest and dispersal corridors must be restored across Borneo and Sumatra to allow the orang utan to disperse naturally,” he said.

“It is a big challenge; governments, industries and NGOs should work hand-in-hand to achieve it.”

The study, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Anthropology in Zurich, Switzerland, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Sabah and Cardiff University in Britain, was published in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology recently.

DGFC director Benoit Goosens said the findings showed that the male orang utan would traverse longer distances than the females.

This was based on faecal samples collected from male orang utan at seven sites in Borneo, including Kinabatangan South and North and Danum Valley in Sabah, and two in Sumatra.

“During a previous study published in 2006, a drastic decline in the orang utan population size was discovered, mostly due to habitat loss,” said Goosens.