Tag: Tanjung Puting

News From The Field: Creatures of the Night

Slow Loris

Dusk approaches along the banks of the Sekonyer River in Tanjung Puting National Park, the gateway to Camp Leakey. Orangutans have already made their nests and hunkered down for the night. In the national park, especially during the high season in July and August, holidaymakers slumber on the kelotoks (houseboats used for tourism) parked on… Continue reading News From The Field: Creatures of the Night

A Look Back at the History of Iconic Camp Leakey

When Birute Mary Galdikas ventured deep into the heart of Borneo in 1971 as a young graduate student, it was in pursuit of a long sought-after dream – that of exploring an ancient tropical rainforest and discovering more about the mystery held within it: the Bornean orangutan. Dr. Galdikas was fascinated by these animals we… Continue reading A Look Back at the History of Iconic Camp Leakey

The Captivating Flora and Fauna of Tanjung Puting National Park

Tanjung Puting National Park, where Orangutan Foundation International has worked for over 30 years, and its surrounding area is home to a beautiful array of diverse flora and fauna including the Bornean orangutan. In this photo essay we would like to introduce you to some of the other species, from palm trees and beetles to… Continue reading The Captivating Flora and Fauna of Tanjung Puting National Park

Tanjung Puting National Park Day

  On Sunday the 7th of February, 2016 a promotion day was hosted by the Tanjung Puting National Park at Kumai, in the province of Kalimantan Tengah (Central Indonesian Borneo).The aim of the day was to promote the National Park as a tourist destination for local people and to highlight the Park’s unique biodiversity. Orangutan… Continue reading Tanjung Puting National Park Day

Analyzing Hydrology in Tanjung Puting’s Peat Swamp Forests

It may seem strange to think of tropical forests and swamps together… but not to orangutans who call peat swamp forests home. The flooded river networks of Tanjung Puting National Park and Lamandau Reserve are key components of forest ecology. Without them, forests and fruit would be distributed differently, and so would orangutans and other species dependent on these unique ecosystem.

Gestural Communication in Wild Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in Tanjung Puting National Park

According to our current knowledge, the orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was the first great-ape species to split off from the evolutionary tree that led to modern humans. This happened about 14 million years ago (Goodman, 1999). In searching for the origins of human cognition and human language it is therefore imperative to gain knowledge about the… Continue reading Gestural Communication in Wild Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in Tanjung Puting National Park

Great Call Girl!

Our adventure in Indonesia started with a trip to Jakarta. We were greeted by an (un)healthy dose of heat, noise, and smog and endured a week of frustrating, but necessary, red-tape, government officials (more often behind ping-pong tables than desks), and hair-raising taxi drives in order to validate our LIPI research permits. Eventually we received… Continue reading Great Call Girl!

OFI Partner, World Education, Begins Farmer Field School Program in Tanjung Puting National Park

World Education (WE) was established more than fifty years ago to improve the lives of the disadvantaged through social and economic programs. These programs include agricultural training, environmental education, community development, and integrated literacy. World Education’s international work is designed to contribute to individual growth as well as to community and national development. OFI’s partnership… Continue reading OFI Partner, World Education, Begins Farmer Field School Program in Tanjung Puting National Park

Orangutan Populations may become extinct in the wild within the next twenty years

Orangutans may become extinct in the wild within the next ten years – a frightening fact. I spent most of the summer in Indonesia and the situation there remains very critical. I want to keep you up to date on our struggle to keep orangutans and their forests in Indonesia from being completely destroyed.

There is good news and bad news to the story.

WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1687 [post_author] => 10282 [post_date] => 2003-11-21 21:58:17 [post_date_gmt] => 2003-11-22 04:58:17 [post_content] => Dear Orangutan Foundation International Members and Friends, Orangutan populations may become extinct in the wild within the next twenty years - a frightening fact. I spent most of the summer in Indonesia and the situation there remains very critical. I want to keep you up to date on our struggle to keep orangutans and their forests in Indonesia from being completely destroyed. There is good news and bad news to the story. And the good news is very good news! We threw all our resources at the problem of illegal logging and poaching in Lamandau Nature Reserve and in Tanjung Puting National Park this year. Sparing no effort as an organization, we hired more field assistants to patrol the northern part of the Park. As a result, dozens of illegal gold miners, wild-rubber tappers, and even farmers were discovered and evicted from the previously lawless area bordered by the left fork of the Sekonyer River. Our new twice-weekly exhaustive patrols are protecting the forest there. When we heard that local poachers were still, in the dead of night, poaching for dragonfish and turtles in the Park, and shooting the highly endangered and endemic proboscis monkeys for turtle bait, we hired a second boat and additional local assistants to physically block the right hand fork of the Sekonyer River mouth and provide nightly patrols. The fishing and poaching stopped immediately. Then, on August 25th, we learned that twenty illegal garu loggers from another region of Borneo had invaded the northern reaches of the Park. Garu is a fragrant wood created within one species of tree when its timber is attacked by a certain type of fungus. High-quality garu sells for $500 US (yes, five hundred dollars per pound!) right on the spot. It is sold to buyers in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. This makes garu loggers especially dangerous. Because garu is so valuable, loggers literally tear apart all garu trees,  from the roots to the twigs, from tiny pole trees to large trees. Garu loggers have devastated forests all over Borneo. Our Camp Leakey study area was one of the last remaining forests in Borneo never to have been ravaged by garu loggers. Our assistants confronted the 20 garu loggers who fled on foot five miles north. I immediately reported the garu loggers to the local police chief and on August 27th, I led a group of 25 local assistants and 10 heavily armed police officers, five from the elite mobile brigade, into the forest to track the loggers. Our forest-savvy Dayak assistants located the loggers’ camp deep in the forest and the police arrested 10 loggers (the other 10 fled) and took them to jail on August 30th. As I write this letter two and a half months later, the 10 garu loggers are still in jail - something unprecedented in the annals of the Park and forest protection in the region. The police chief told the prosecutors that he did not want to disappoint us. Even more good news comes from Lamandau Nature Reserve where we are closing in on our goal of releasing 31 orangutans back into the wild this year. Over 20 ex-captive orangutans have already been released at the reserve and we were able, with the help of community patrols, Forestry and local police, to stop the logging along one river in the Reserve. You should have seen the look of wonder on the faces of these orangutans when they returned to the great forest for all time! But these successes came at a high cost. That’s the bad news. So far it has cost OFI fifty thousand dollars to implement the nightly patrols, to hire additional guard boats, and to fund the additional community, local police, and Forestry police in the forests we protect. Right now we have funds for only one month’s work in Borneo. We are facing a most difficult time. Time is running out. Recent surveys in Borneo and Sumatra suggest that orangutan populations are in rapid decline. But so far we have been able to save Tanjung Puting National Park so it is home to the largest population of wild orangutans left on this planet. Your gift has never been more needed and means more to the orangutans, wildlife, and forests of Borneo than you’ll ever know. I would not be making this plea if it were not so urgently needed. We cannot abandon the orangutans and wildlife of Borneo when they need us the most. Thank you very much for your support both in the past and in the future. And my warmest wishes go out to you this holiday season. Without you, the orangutans would have no future at all. Sincerely yours, Biruté Mary Galdikas P.S. Your generosity will help save pristine habitat for the 6,000 orangutans that live in Tanjung Puting National Park. [post_title] => Orangutan Populations may become extinct in the wild within the next twenty years [post_excerpt] => Orangutans may become extinct in the wild within the next ten years - a frightening fact. I spent most of the summer in Indonesia and the situation there remains very critical. I want to keep you up to date on our struggle to keep orangutans and their forests in Indonesia from being completely destroyed. There is good news and bad news to the story. 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