Red Alert for Red Apes: DNA shows big losses for Borneo orangutans: Science News Online, Jan. 28, 2006

Red Alert for Red Apes: DNA shows big losses for Borneo orangutans: Science News Online, Jan. 28, 2006: "Because they hang out in nests high up in trees and lead relatively solitary lives, orangutans have challenged scientists trying to study them. Now, orangutans face their own challenge, and it's urgent.



UP A TREE. New genetic study portrays a bleak future for orangutans in Borneo if conservation efforts are not initiated. DNA changes indicate a rapid drop in population.
J. Sinyor/KOCP

Increasingly steep population declines over the past century or two have imperiled orangutans' survival in northeastern Borneo, according to a new DNA analysis. In just the past few decades, the population has dropped from more than 20,000 to about 5,000 orangutans, report geneticist Benoit Goossens of Cardiff University in England and his colleagues. This trend coincides with extensive forest clearance that began in the 1890s and accelerated during the past 50 years, the scientists note."