.JPG)
In the process of running this campaign, we have been asked numerous times ‘Why should we save orangutans?’ ‘What makes them so special?’ ‘Why not choose some other animal to protect?’ To help clear all doubts as to the importance of this species, we have decided to put up a post on the significance of orangutans and the reasons why everyone should pitch in to help them.- There are only 45,000 to 50000 Bornean orangutans living in the wild.
- Orangutans are listed in the top 25 most endangered primates worldwide.
- They give birth every 6 to 10 years (the longest interbirth interval of any animal) resulting in fewer offspring compared to humans which have a birth rate of about 1 child every 1 to 2 years.
- They are the only Asian great ape.
- Experts predict their extinction within the next ten years if deforestation continues at this rate.
- Orangutans are needed to maintain the diversity of species on Earth.
- Losing them would result in an unbalanced ecosystem.
- By dispersing seeds in the forest, orangutans play a major role in forest regeneration and plant species diversity.
- From a religious point of view, orangutans are one of the many creations of God and we should cherish them as such.
- According to expert anthropologists, the study of orangutans is key to understanding the process of human evolution.
- In ten years, experts predict that orangutans could be extinct and we would have lost forever the only great ape of
Asia .
- And of course, we need to preserve them for our children's children so that they can see an orangutan with their own eyes and realize how valuable this species is to us.
We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732