Saturday, December 4, 2010

Bruised, tied up and caged: The desperate plight of starving orangutans forced into villages to look for food as their rainforest home is destroyed

By WIL LONGBOTTOM

Desperate: A baby orangutan clings dejectedly to its mother after she was beaten, tied up and shut in a tiny cage while looking for food in Sungai Pinyuh, Indonesia


Arms wrapped dejectedly around his mother, this baby orangutan can only cling on to her for comfort after being tied up in a cage.

The pitiful creatures were captured after going into a village in Sungai Pinyuh, Indonesia, in a desperate search for food.

They were then beaten by villagers so badly one of the primates died before being locked in the tiny cage without food or water.


Plight: Orangutan numbers have been badly hit in Indonesia and Borneo as unscrupulous logging companies tear down their rainforest habitat to sell wood or grow crops like palm oil


Rainforests cover 60 per cent of Indonesia, but orangutans - which means man of the forest - have seen their habitat cut down at an alarming rate, often to fuel the need for space to grow palm oil crops.

Many adult orangutans are killed by farmers in Indonesia and Borneo to prevent them eating crops as their natural food disappears, leaving helpless orphans to die in the wild.

Indonesia is one of the world's leading emitters of carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming.

Tropical forests play a key role in soaking up carbon dioxide and regulating the climate.


Industry: An illegal logger cuts down a tree to form planks for construction in a forest south of Sampit, Kalimantan province

source: dailymail


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