Endangered Bornean orangutans survive in managed forest, decline near oil palm plantations

JULY 17, 2019

by Public Library of Science

Recent surveys of the population of endangered Bornean orangutans in Sabah, the Malaysian state in the north-east of Borneo, show mixed results. Populations have remained stable within well-managed forests, where there is little hunting, but declined in landscapes comprising extensive oil palm plantations, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Donna Simon of the World Wide Fund for Nature—Malaysia, and colleagues. The study is the largest and most complete population survey of orangutans on Borneo, home to this endangered and endemic species.

Lowland forest is the most important habitat for orangutans in Sabah. Over the past 50 years, however, extensive logging and land clearance for agriculture caused habitat loss and fragmentation, which led to a drastic decline in their numbers, but the full extent of the effects on orangutan population have been difficult to estimate.

In the current study, the authors conducted aerial transects totaling nearly 5,500 kilometers across Sabah state, almost three times the length of a previous survey done in 2002-2003. Based on the number of nests, they calculated a population of 9,558 orangutans, including a previously unknown population of about 1,770 orangutans in many widely dispersed sub-populations.

Continued

Breakthrough as plantation workers jailed for killing orangutan

Conservationists at Sabah in Malaysia are celebrating a breakthrough sentence which has seen 2 palm oil plantation workers jailed for 2 years for killing an orang-utan. The Sabah Wildlife Department have also described the sentence as a ‘landmark decision’.

The two workers pleaded guilty to killing the great ape with a parang – or machete type knife – at Felda Sahabat on Jan 29th 2014. They claimed they killed the orang-utan because it had damaged palm oil plants.

The Sabah Wildlife Department disputed this and said the workers were poaching the animal for the bush meat trade.

Assistant director Dr Sen Nathan from the department said that there was a local demand for bush meat of all types.

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13 pygmy elephants poisoned in Sabah

WWF: Long-term solutions needed for conservation of Borneo pygmy elephants
January 2013. Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have died in the Malaysian state of Sabah, and there is a very strong suspicion that they have been poisoned. The animals were all thought to be from the same extended family, and had all suffered internal bleeding, were found in close proximity in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve .

Read on...

Pygmy Elephants Get Protection Boost from Genetics

To help protect a diminutive elephant researchers are taking an innovative look at the pachyderm's genome.

The goal is to understand the genetic diversity of pygmy elephants on the island of Borneo. Numbering about 2,000, these babyish-looking elephants are the most endangered subspecies of Asian elephant. They live primarily in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo, where they are threatened by the loss and fragmentation of their forest, often by development associated with palm oil, widely used, edible plant oil.

"We are interested in looking at the diversity of elephants around the whole distribution range in Sabah," said study researcher Reeta Sharma, a postdoctoral fellow at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Portugal.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/25538-pygmy-elephants-genetics.html

Bid to save Borneo’s rhinos

Reforestation will reconnect areas of rainforest - enabling larger mammals movement again

November 2010: A long-term reforestation project to help save Borneo's wildlife has been agreed in Sabah. Borneo's unique wildlife, including endangered species such as the Sabah rhino, the clouded leopard and the orang utan, is threatened by deforestation and habitat fragmentation. The project is focussing on restoring and reconnecting degraded and fragmented forest land.

The Sabah Forestry Department is working with the Rhino and Forest Fund (RFF), a German-based NGO. Sabah officials say they will now ensure that the reserve and the restored areas will remain protected, excluding any conversion or logging in the future.


The core area of Tabin remains still untouched and represents one of the oldest and most diverse rainforests in the world. But the reserve is surrounded by oil palm plantations, restricting movements of large mammals. The restoration project of the Rhino and Forest Fund will increase habitat and reconnect patches of rainforest, enabling the movements and breeding of isolated populations, such as the pygmy elephant and the Sabah rhino.

Datuk Sam Mannan, Director of the Sabah Forestry Department said: ‘Forests are important for Sabah's climate and its rich biodiversity. They provide fundamental services to human well beings and therefore need to be protected and restored.'

Dr Petra Kretzschmar, co-founder of RFF, stated: ‘We see the charismatic Sabah rhino as a flagship species for the diverse lowland rainforest in Sabah. The signing is a major breakthrough to effectively combine the protection of endangered species like the rhino and the restoration of their natural habitat.'

The restoration work will start in early next year and will be expanded as time goes on.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sabah-rhino.html