Owairaka 20/20

Wow. I saw orangutans in the wild. Not in a cage or in some zoo. Not a tame pet. A wild animal free to roam wherever it wants to. Semenggoh is a 650 hectare tract of jungle. 24 orangutans live there.

One family of orangutans needs 500 hectares of space to get enough food to survive. Therefore, the wardens have to offer food twice a day so that these animals will not starve. They come to the feeding station if they want. Sometimes they all come, sometimes none do.

I went on Sunday afternoon. Two teenage orangutans turned up. I wish I was there earlier that day. Some of the tourists were too noisy and some had cameras on a tripod, two things that can annoy an orangutan. They hate tripods because they look like a blowpipe that the native tribes use to hunt orangutans with. Ritchie, the largest orangutan, got angry and rushed at the crowd shaking the handrails and urinating at the people. Everyone had to rush to safety. It might have been scary but I think it would have been exciting to see.

[slideshare id=1746228&doc=orangutansinthewild-090720205442-phpapp02]

I asked Room 20 earlier what animal is in bigger danger of extinction, the kiwi or the orangutan. We haven’t yet made any conclusions. Here are some facts to consider.

1. Orangutans need a huge space to live in.
2. They never have more than one baby at a time.
3. Mothers only have a baby every five years.
4. They are being poached and sold on the black market because some people believe they have medicinal benefits.
5. Mother orangutans get shot by poachers so that the baby can be caught and sold as a pet.
   

This video clip on Youtube is the best I could find about kiwis. It has interesting facts and figures about the kiwi’s plight. I cannot embed it into the blog but please do watch it from this link. It is well worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Be5XYhkEnI

Can anyone else find some better kiwi videos? The first twenty kiwi videos on youtube are not about the kiwi bird.

This is animated but Joanna loved it so much I have put it in.

I know the narrator is speaking in Swedish but the visuals in this short clip are very interesting.

Borneo Orangutan Sweden from Borneo Orangutan Survival Sweden on Vimeo.

Which animal is more endangered, New Zealand’s kiwis or Malaysia’s Orangutangs?

What are the biggest threats to their survival? How is man trying to help them survive?

Find out…

• fascinating facts about each of these amazing animals.
• reasons why their survival is being threatened.
• what steps are being taken to ensure their species does survive.

Paddy has researched this information about Kiwis and orangutangs.

• Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand.
• At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size.
• There are five recognised species – all of which are endangered.
• The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand.

• The orangutans are a species of great apes.
• Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and they are the largest living arboreal animal.
• They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is typically reddish-brown.
• Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, though fossils have been found in Java, the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Vietnam and China.
• There are only two surviving species.

 Paddy needs to find meanings for new words like ratites, arboreal, Borneo, Sumatra, endemic, species.

Let’s add to this list of fascinating facts.