Life is hard in the Indonesian rainforest – compared to Africa and South America, there is very little to be found to eat (except in specific areas. As a result, orangutans become solitary, with the only time they are seen together is a mother with young, or a courting couple. Another problem, is demonstrated here – there is so little food to be had, that every food opportunity has to be realized. This has meant that orangutans have become the best climbers (followed by Chimpanzee and then Gorilla), as where ever the food is, it needs to be accessed.
It is true, that with tools, humans can become even better climbers (as can be seen from the image), which is taken from further up the tree than the orangutans have even climbed.
Is this sort of sight going to become a thing of the past? Living alone, takes up more space, and as a result, there population has dropped precipitously over the last century. The Sumatran orangutan is considered as critically endangered with 14000 left, while the Borneon orangutan is also considered critically endangered with 70,000 -104,700 and the Tapanuli orangutan (only discovered recently) is also critically endangered with just 800 remaining. All three are considered as critically endangered, as while they have a varied number of individuals left, without significant change, not enough of the rainforest which they call home will be left.
How can you help? The vast majority of the destruction is done to grown palm oil, so make sure that when you buy vegetable oil (palm oil is rarely called palm oil) make sure that it is certified by the rainforest alliance or someone similar.
