Orangutans share 97 percent of the same DNA as humans. These incredible primates are highly social, emotional, and intelligent, however, despite the genetic and social similarities that we might share with the orangutan, very few people recognize that human actions are leading to the demise of the orangutan.
It is estimated that there are only around 40,000 orangutans left in their native habitat of Borneo and Sumatra, and as the expansion of palm oil plantations and poaching continue in these regions, the orangutan population is only set to decline. Some scientists estimate that the orangutan will be extinct from the wild within the next 20 years if we don’t do anything to protect these animals.
In an effort to protect these primates, many zoos have launched captive breeding programs. While this might ensure that the species doesn’t go extinct, if their native habitat continues to be destroyed then zoos efforts will mean that this species can only exist in a captive environment – hardly a happy existence for this complex species.
In this video, a captive orangutan peers at a mother and her child through the glass of their enclosure. It might seem cute that the orangutan is so infatuated with the mother and her infant, but it also draws attention to the sad reality for the orangutan in captivity. Like this mother and child, the orangutan should be free to have a family and interact with others of their species in their proper, wild habitat, but for a number of reasons, this orangutan will probably never get that chance.
The orangutan has the right to live freely in their native home just as much as humans do. It is up to us to recognize this fact and learn how our actions prohibit the orangutan from doing so. Palm oil is a leading driver in the destruction of the orangutan’s habitat and can be found in over 50 percent of our consumer goods. We can all make a difference for these animals by avoiding palm oil. To learn more, click here. You can also help save the orangutan by supporting organizations that work to conserve the orangutan in their wild habitat, check out this list for more.
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Please give credit to the real owner of this video. Here is the link to the actual video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS1n6fsk01E
What\’s this? ONLY Forty Thousand orange monkeys in the wild? What about other endangered species? Nobody notices that there are fewer than four thousand (that is 4,000) gray wolves left in the entire USA, our own home turf.
Such "whataboutery".
until we as a species recognise the right of other species to co exist with us, until we give these other species legal protection everything will be gone…we need to realize that all 8 billion humans don\’t have the same rights when a species is on the verge of extinction, sorry, but poachers need to be killed on sight, and prey that a very large earthquake reduces china to less than half a billion people, and yes, we need ebola and flu and drug resistant tuberculosis and other "plagues" to control our exponential population growth,
You could not have said it better! All the diseases in the world, all the earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, famines, wars, crimes, accidents, so on, can\’t seem to put a dent in the always growing global human overpopulation. All that religious "human sanctity" is smothering to death the planet\’s nonhuman species, including, of course, domestic "farm" animals, who will be bred and exploited to the maximum by any and all means to supply the global human overpopulation with meat, dairy, and eggs, etc. As this happens, all the still free-living wild creatures will be pushed into oblivion. The "human spirit" makes me sick!
Humans breed like roaches, and get downright huffy if anyone suggests they don\’t have some inherent right to do so. We devour the resources, major corporations trash it still more in the name of short-term profits. Palm oil is especially insidious — it\’s in damn near everything. I\’d love to see it outlawed, which is probably impractical. And I\’d put a bounty on poacher\’s heads, making them much more collectible than ivory, etc.