Surprise, surprise: more than twice as many orangutans live in Sumatra than previously believed . While the last estimate, made in 2008, gave a figure of 6,600 copies, the upward correction brings it to no less than 14,600 .
Good news? Obviously, yes, but with many nuances, as the authors of the study have emphasized. “It is true that the possibility that the number of orangutans will be reduced to zero in the near future is more distant now , although this does not mean that there has not been a strong decline in their population, ” explained Serge Wich, a naturalist at the Liverpool John Moores University and main responsible for the new census.
This apparent paradox is explained by the fact that individuals have been found in places where they were not previously thought to live, such as deforested areas and altitudes above 1,500 meters . Orangutans appear to occupy a habitat 2.56 times greater than that established to date, with groups that develop different behaviors and eating habits than their lowland counterparts.
However, the risks to the largest arboreal mammal on Earth are still there: uncontrolled felling of forests, poaching and the illegal trafficking of young , which are sold as pets. The new findings therefore do not refute estimates that the orangutan population – now confined to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo – has declined 80% in the last 75 years, Wich noted.
The forecast, explain this expert and his team in the journal Science Advances , is that the census will be reduced by 4,500 individuals between now and 2030 if the destruction of the forests where they live is not stopped .
