Orangutan Outreach Website - Saving the Orangutan

Source: DPA - February 18, 2008
Jakarta

Senior field officers in the Indonesian National Police are to undergo training aimed at cracking down on wildlife smugglers and illegal loggers, who are threatening the country’s biodiversity and natural resources, a regional wildlife alliance said Monday. The training over the next two and a half weeks is on how to detect and arrest members of organized crime syndicates looting the nation’s forests, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Wildlife Enforcement Network said in a statement.

“It’s great news for Indonesia that the police have committed to work with other agencies to protect the country’s wildlife and forests,” said Steve Galster, director of field operations for PeunPa and the Wildlife Alliance, conservation groups that support the ASEAN network. “Laws exist to protect endangered species and ecosystems.”

The fate of Indonesia’s wildlife and forests has been in the global spotlight in recent weeks after the discovery that the population of critically endangered Sumatran tigers had plummeted because of poaching and illegal wildlife sales. Researchers had found tiger bones, claws, skins and whiskers being sold openly in eight cities on Sumatra despite laws banning such trade. The Sumatran tiger is the world’s most endangered tiger subspecies with fewer than 500 of the big cats remaining in the wild.

To improve capacity to detect and prevent these and other crimes involving wildlife and forests, Indonesian police officers are to join forestry and customs officers for nature crime investigations training at the National Police’s criminal investigations training centre in Bogor, West Java.

Galster said officials hope the intensive Wildlife Crime Investigation Course would pave the way for more joint training to help the government tackle poaching and smuggling networks.

The ASEAN wildlife network involves the law enforcement agencies of all 10 ASEAN countries and facilitates cross-border collaboration in the fight against illegal wildlife trade in the region.

Indonesia is a global hotspot for trade in wild animals and plants. It is second only to Brazil in richness of biodiversity. Its forests are also under threat from illegal and unregulated logging.

Once abundant in Indonesia, species such as tigers, orang-utans and rhinoceros are now close to extinction because of a lethal combination of habitat destruction, persistent poaching and smuggling, weak enforcement and lack of public awareness.

Green is good, right? Not if the biofuel is made out of palm oil! We certainly hope that Mayor Bloomberg’s people realize that palm oil production is far worse for the environment than burning fossil fuels… Orangutan Outreach is based in new York, and as much as we would like to have cleaner air in Manhattan, we don’t want it to come at the expense of tropical rainforests and orangutans. ~ Rich

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2746004920080227

NEW YORK - New York City unveiled new fuel emissions standards for the city’s 10,000 black taxis on Wednesday that will compel the town car owners to switch to hybrid technology within five years.

The move — part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to decrease the city’s carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030 — comes less than a year after Bloomberg announced the city’s 13,000 yellow taxi cabs will go hybrid by 2012.

Black town cars service mostly corporate clients and are responsible for two percent of the city’s transportation related emissions, Bloomberg said. He said the change will cut their emissions by half.

Hybrid cars are powered by a gasoline engine combined with an electric motor with batteries that recharge when the car is in motion.

(Reporting by Edith Honan, editing by Daniel Trotta and Vicki Allen)

The destruction of Sumatra’s natural forests is accelerating global climate change and pushing endangered species closer to extinction, a new report warned today.

A study from WWF claims that converting the forests and peat swamps of just one Sumatran province into plantations for pulpwood and palm oil is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands, and is endangering local elephant and tiger populations.

The fastest rate of deforestation in Indonesia is occurring in central Sumatra’s Riau province, where some 4.2m hectares (65%) of its tropical forests and peat swamps have been cleared for industrial plantations in the past 25 years, the study shows.

Since 1982, about 30% of the province’s natural forest has been cleared for palm oil plantations, 24% for industrial pulpwood plantations, and 17% has become so-called wasteland – land that has been deforested but not replaced by any crop cover. Twenty-five years ago, according to the report, forest covered 78% of the Riau province. Today it covers just 27%. In just one year, 2005-06, it lost 286,146 hectares – 11% of forest cover.

Illegal and legal forest clearance for the development of settlements, infrastructure and agriculture has traditionally driven deforestation in Riau, but the “speed and finality” of forest conversion for the rapidly expanding pulp and paper and palm oil industries is matched “by no other type of deforestation”, the report says.

The resulting average annual CO2 from forest loss, degradation, peat decomposition and fires between 1990-2007 in Riau province alone was 0.22 gigatons – higher than that of the Netherlands, or equivalent to 58% of Australia’s total annual emissions, or 39% of the UK’s annual emissions, the report says.

The report, a joint effort between WWF, Remote Sensing Solutions and Hokkaido university in Japan, claims to be the first piece of research to analyse the connection between deforestation and forest degradation, global climate change and declining wildlife populations.

It has analysed deforestation and forest degradation over a 25-year period between 1982-2007. By using satellite images to map land cover and usage it has identified the main drivers of forest clearance. Researchers used remote sensing analysis and two different land management scenarios to estimate historical and future CO2 emissions related to deforestation up to 2015.

Riau is home to vast peatlands that are estimated to hold south-east Asia’s largest store of carbon, and contains some of the most biodiverse ecosystems that are home to critically endangered species such as Sumatra elephants and tigers, rhinos and orang-utans.

In the past 25 years, WWF says there has been a clear correlation in Riau between the clearance of forests and declining wildlife populations, largely thought to be due to an increase in human-wildlife conflict as animals are driven from their disappearing forest habitats.

The report shows there has been a huge decline in elephant numbers – from an estimated 1,067-1,617 in 1984 to possibly as few as 210 individuals today. If this trend continues and the two largest remaining elephant forests are not protected, Riau’s wild elephant population will face extinction, the report warns.

Similarly, figures in the report show that Riau’s Sumatran tiger population has declined by 70% in 25 years, from 640 to 192 today. Unless the last remaining patches of tiger habitat are connected by wildlife corridors, these too will face extinction, the report says.

“We found that Sumatra’s elephants and tigers are disappearing even faster than their forests are in Riau,” said WWF International’s species programme director, Dr Susan Lieberman. “This is happening because as wildlife search for new habitat and food sources, they increasingly come into conflict with people and are killed.

“The fragmentation and opening up of new forest areas also increases both the access and the opportunities for poaching. Therefore, a concerted effort to save these forests will contribute significantly to slowing the rate of global climate change, and will give tigers, elephants, and local communities a real chance for a future in
Sumatra.”

About 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to come from global annual deforestation, which often takes place in the most biodiverse regions of the world, such as Brazil and Indonesia.

Indonesia’s carbon emissions are likely to increase, the study predicts, as most future forest clearance will be conducted in areas with deep peat, which releases greenhouse gases when it decomposes or burns.

During December’s UN climate change conference in Bali, the Indonesian minister for forestry promised to provide incentives to stop unsustainable forestry practices, and to protect Indonesia’s forests. The governor of Riau province has also made a public commitment to protect the province’s remaining forest. WWF is urging the government to uphold these promises.

“If the commitments by the Indonesian government are implemented, it will not only save its endangered species, but actually slow the rate of global climate change through the carbon savings,” said Ian Kosasih, the director of WWF Indonesia’s forest programme.

“If government and local industry were to create positive incentives for projects to reduce emissions by saving forests in Riau province, it would both protect the province’s massive carbon stores and also contribute to the economies of local communities that are dependent on these forests,” Kosasih added.

The demand for palm oil, which is fuelling much of the forest clearance, has risen in recent years to meet a global demand for biofuels.

Last week, the transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, ordered a government review of the environmental and economic damage caused by growing biofuels.

Ministers say a number of studies have emerged recently that question the environmental benefits of biofuels, and the government wants to check that UK and European biofuel targets will not cause more problems than they solve.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/27/climatechange.forests

John Spears
City Hall Bureau

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/308128

The Toronto Zoo’s orangutan Puppe (German for doll), with her 10-month-old son, Budiman, which means “the wise one.”
TANNIS TOOHEY/TORONTO STAR

The Toronto Zoo is on the verge of launching a quarter-billion-dollar fundraising campaign while repositioning itself as a major force for conservation and education.

The ambitious $250 million target is in a similar range as recent fundraising drives by the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. But with those campaigns in their final stages, consultants say the timing is ripe for the zoo to launch its own drive.

The zoo must persuade donors it’s more than just a place to see cute or exotic animals, a consultant told the zoo’s management board yesterday.

Many of the projects the $250 million will cover meet a refreshed green mandate, including:

* A $32 million revamp of the Canadian exhibits, including a grizzly bear compound.
* A $21.5 million education centre focusing on biodiversity and sustainability. The structure will be built to top-rated environmental standards.
* A $17 million permanent giant panda exhibit. The zoo has an agreement with China to get the animals, but still needs co-operation from the federal government before the pandas can be secured.
* A new animal health centre for $8.3 million.
* A $32.8 million conservation fund that would allow the zoo to fund projects anywhere in the world.
* A $2.5 million fund for reproductive research so the zoo can breed more animals. That’s in keeping with the zoo’s conservation mandate.

“You need to create a grander vision of what the Toronto Zoo is,” consultant Sandy MacKenzie of DVA Navion told the board.

The firm’s public research found that people mostly had positive feelings about the zoo, with one exception: “They didn’t truly believe that you lived your conservation and education mandate.”

“Just to be an attraction will not raise you this money,” MacKenzie said. “You need to go to the next level, and you must live green and cause people to become green.”

Board members agreed that the zoo’s green mandate needs freshening.

“Most people look at the Toronto Zoo as an entertainment attraction similar to Canada’s Wonderland,” said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre).

Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) agreed the zoo is “not living up to its potential.”

Although attendance has remained healthy – it grew 16 per cent last year, to 1.43 million visitors – it has suffered from declining city funding.

The city gave the zoo $8 million annually in the early 1990s, equivalent to $13 million today. But recently, city grants for operations have shrunk to less than $5 million a year.

Spending on exhibits has also withered. Under constant budget pressure, for example, zoo staff had originally proposed a $15 million overhaul of the Canadian exhibits.

But chief operating officer Robin Hale said staff now want to decide on the best way to do a project, then raise the money to do it right. Zoos today must also meet higher standards to keep animals healthy and happy.

In response, the zoo board yesterday approved spending $32 million on the renovation, which will be paid for by the fundraising.

Hale agreed the zoo needs to reassert its role in conservation and education. “I think our voice can speak volumes for people to respect nature, and we have the opportunity with our site to introduce people to nature.”

The fundraising campaign, to be run by the arm’s-length Toronto Zoo Foundation, will begin with a $50 million first stage.

DVA Navion said it’s crucial to have the foundation run the campaign because the zoo is a city agency and donors want to be sure their money isn’t siphoned off into other parts of the city budget.

The zoo board will ask the foundation to work out a detailed campaign, but the broad elements of how the money will be spent have already been plotted, Hale said.

The plan calls for $110 million of the $250 million total to come from three levels of government. A further $115 million will be raised from individuals, while corporate donors will be targeted for $20 million, and foundations for $5 million.

Board members embraced the fundraising goal and the idea that it will require a bigger emphasis on conservation. “I think we can do it,” said De Baeremaeker. “We’ve never dared to dream this big before.”

Wilmar, one of the biggest players in the palm oil industry, is responsible for unimaginable amounts of forest destruction… It sickens me to think of the number of orangutans who have been killed as a result of their activities… If there were such a thing as a class action lawsuit on behalf of the orangutans, Wilmar would get life without parole…  Read more about Wilmar here and here. ~ Rich

Source: Bloomberg.com

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) — Wilmar International Ltd., the world’s biggest palm oil trader, said fourth-quarter profit jumped fivefold after prices rose to a record and it made acquisitions to benefit from increased demand.

Net income climbed to $234 million, or 5.15 cents a share, from $43.9 million, or 1.89 cents a share, a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said today in a statement to the stock exchange. Sales rose to $6.5 billion from $2.2 billion.

Wilmar, Singapore’s second-most valuable listed company, supplies about 45 percent of retail cooking oil in China. The Asian nation imported 25 percent more vegetable oils last year as increased incomes stoked demand, boosting palm oil prices.

“Wilmar is in a strong position to benefit from rising Chinese demand,” Ben Santoso, a plantation analyst at DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore), said before the results were announced.

Wilmar is the best performer of the 30 companies on the Straits Times Index over the past 12 months, more than doubling, compared with the benchmark’s 2 percent advance. The stock retreated 1.4 percent to S$4.86 yesterday.

For the full year, Wilmar’s profit rose to $580.4 million, or 12.78 cents a share, from $215.9 million, or 9.31 cents a share, in 2006. That compares with the median forecast of $524.4 million, according to 12 analysts’ estimates tracked by Bloomberg.

Executive Summary - Losing Ground
http://www.sawitwatch.or.id
February 2008

In Brief:

The challenge of tackling climate change has created a growing world market for agrofuels - vegetable crops which can be used to produce fuel for transport and power stations. As a result, many developing countries are turning to crops such as oil palm to feed this demand. Indonesia, currently the world’s biggest producer of crude palm oil, is continuing a massive expansion of its palm oil industry, despite serious concerns about the impact of oil palm on the environment. Now a new report by Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosaic has revealed how Indonesian government policies and palm oil industry practices are harming the rights of local communities and indigenous people. This summary highlights the importance of these findings to policy makers in Europe and argues that in the face of such evidence, targets to increase agrofuel use in the UK and the rest of the EU are misguided, risking environmental damage and human rights abuses on an even bigger scale.

Contact:
Sawit watch: Jefry Saragih (jefry@sawitwatch.or.id)
FoE EWNI: alison dilworth (alison.dilworth@foe.co.uk)
Life Mosaic: serge marti (serge@lifemosaic.net)

The full report, Losing Ground, is available for download here.

Please also visit http://www.lifemosaic.net and http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/losingground-summary.pdf

26 Feb 2008
Source: WWF

Pekanbaru, Sumatra: Turning just one Sumatran province’s forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands and rapidly driving the province’s elephants into extinction, a new study by WWF and partners has found.

The study found that in central Sumatra’s Riau Province 4.2 million hectares of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and fires are behind average annual carbon emissions equivalent to 122 percent of the Netherlands total annual emissions, 58 percent of Australia’s annual emissions, 39 per cent of annual UK emissions and 26 per cent of annual German emissions.

Riau was chosen for the study because it is home to vast peatlands estimated to hold Southeast Asia’s largest store of carbon, and contains some of the most critical habitat for Sumatran elephants and tigers. It also has Indonesia’s highest deforestation rate, substantially driven by the operations of global paper giants Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL).

The report by WWF, Remote Sensing Solution GmbH and Hokkaido University breaks new ground by analyzing for the first time the connection between deforestation and forest degradation, global climate change, and population declines of tigers and elephants.

The province has lost 65 per cent of its forests over the last 25 years and in recent years has suffered Indonesia’s fastest deforestation rates. In the same period there was an 84 per cent decline in elephant populations, down to only 210 individuals, while tiger populations are estimated to have declined by 70 per cent to perhaps just 192 individuals.

“We found that Sumatra’s elephants and tigers are disappearing even faster than their forests are in Riau,” said WWF International’s Species Programme Director, Dr Susan Lieberman. “This is happening because as wildlife search for new habitat and food sources, they increasingly come into conflict with people and are killed.

“The fragmentation and opening up of new forest areas also increases both the access and the opportunities for poaching. Therefore, a concerted effort to save these forests will contribute significantly to slowing the rate of

global climate change, and will give tigers, elephants, and local communities a real chance for a future in Sumatra.”

Led by global paper giants APP and APRIL, the pulp & paper and palm oil industries are driving Riau’s Sumatran tigers and elephants to local extinction in just a few years by destroying their habitat, the study found.

At last December’s Bali Climate Change Conference, the Indonesian minister of Forestry pledged to provide incentives to stop unsustainable forestry practices and protect Indonesia’s forests. The governor of Riau province has also made a public commitment to protect the province’s remaining forest.

“If the commitments by the Indonesian government are implemented, it will not only save its endangered species but actually slow the rate of global climate change through the carbon savings,” said Ian Kosasih, director of WWF-Indonesia’s forest programme.

Carbon emissions are likely to increase, the study predicted, as most future forest clearance will be conducted in areas with deep peat.

“If government and local industry were to create positive incentives for projects to reduce emissions by saving forests in Riau Province, it would both protect the province’s massive carbon stores and also contribute to the economies of local communities that are dependent on these forests,” said Kosasih.

As part of its efforts to save Sumatra’s remaining natural forests, WWF is working urgently with the Indonesian government and the pulp and palm oil industries to identify and protect the forests that are home to elephants, tigers, orang-utans and rhinos. Sumatra is the only place on Earth where all four species co-exist.

Source: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=125780

The Jakarta Post, 26 Feb 2008:
Into the woods

Even with so many laws and regulations already enacted to enforce the sustainable management of our forest resources, illegal logging has
remained common throughout the country. So, we can only imagine what will happen with the broad license for the plundering of our protected forests as provided by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono through Government Regulation No. 2/2008.

Yet, both the President and Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban last week stubbornly defended the regulation as an additional measure to protect forests, and blamed environmentalists and analysts for misreading the regulation.

We cannot help but wonder how the government could have issued such a bad regulation that virtually allows companies to exploit protected forests as long as they are willing to pay annual rental fees ranging from Rp 1.2 million (US$125) to Rp 3 million per hectare.

Is the government so strapped for additional revenue that it is willing to trample upon the principle of sustainable forest management?

The presidential decree does take into account a previous regulation issued by then president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2004 (Government Regulation No. 41/2004) that allowed 13 mining companies to conduct mining operations in designated protected forests under certain conditions.

However, this newest regulation was not issued specifically to collect additional levies (rents) from the 13 mining companies, as the government claims. Nor does the regulation specifically name the 13 mining firms as the targets of the rental fees.

Yet potentially more devastating to our forests is that Government Regulation No. 2/2008 further broadens the categories of business operations that can encroach on protected forests, to include the building of electricity transmission and distribution networks and turnpikes.

We find it difficult to understand why Forestry Minister Kaban defended Yudhoyono’s decree merely as a follow-up to the 2004 regulation.

Megawati issued Government Regulation No. 41/2004 to implement Law No. 19/2004, which was enacted to resolve once and for all the imbroglio surrounding 150 mining concessions that were awarded in protected forests before Law No. 41/1999 was enacted. This 1999 forestry law banned open-pit mining in protected forests.

However, the law could not be enforced retroactively on the 150 mining concessions that were awarded before 1999, otherwise the government would have been plunged into messy international litigation that could have cost tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

The House of Representatives and the government eventually worked out a political consensus in 2004 (Law No. 19/2004) that allowed open-pit mining operations in protected forests only for several of the 150 mining concessions.

The 13 mining firms were selected by a joint government-House team under stringent criteria: the amount of investment already made, the commercial volume of mineral deposits already found and the potential benefits of their operations to the national economy.

Environmental NGOs asked for a judicial review of Law No. 19/2004 but the Constitutional Court upheld the law in July 2005, ruling the 1999 law on forestry could not be applied retroactively to mining concessions awarded before 1999.

Law No. 19/2004 seemed at the time the best compromise between the objectives of protecting our forests and of maintaining legal certainty for investors in the mining sector.

Regulation No. 2/2008 would not have caused such a controversy had it specifically been designed to collect additional fees from the 13 mining companies operating in protected forests. Judging from the arguments both Yudhoyono and Kaban have used to defend the regulation, the 13 mining concessions might have been the primary target of the regulation, but the final decree the President signed on Feb. 4 was not specifically designed for the 13 mining firms.

We find it difficult to understand how Forestry Minister Kaban could have drafted such a controversial regulation and why President Yudhoyono would have signed such a poorly written decree without ordering a comprehensive regulatory-impact analysis.

It is not environmentalists or the general public who have misunderstood the regulation, as Yudhoyono alleged last Friday. Rather, it is the President, who hurriedly signed a poorly drafted regulation.

The only thing to do now is annul Regulation No. 2/2008.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Meet Aman, king of the swingers and – thanks to a pioneering eye operation – a lean, mean love machine.

The 20-year-old orangutan is feeling like a new ape after living in darkness for half his life. He’s lost 10kg, toned up and chilled out – all of which makes him quite a catch in ape circles.

After ten years ‘on the bench’ because of his illness, the frisky ape is indulging in a passionate affair with his housemate – proving love at first sight does exist.

Big Aman (our opinion from the photos, not his new girlfriend’s…) was kept as a pet before being handed over to a wildlife centre when he developed blinding cataracts.

They formed after he bit through an electric cable, and meant he had to feel his way around his enclosure. But in May last year he was given the world’s first orangutan cataract operation, funded by charity Orangutan Appeal UK.

The surgery transformed him and also enabled him to see his three offspring for the first time.

Now rangers at Malaysia’s Matang Wildlife Centre think he’ll soon be ready for the jungle.

A spokesman said: ‘Aman will have no problem taking to the trees again.’

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=104275&in_page_id=34

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter

Photo © GREG GILBERT
Caption: Towan the orangutan holds one of the wrapped birthday presents he found on his grounds at the Woodland Park Zoo. He was celebrated on Saturday, as was his twin sister, Chinta.

In their outdoor enclosure, they had torn up their birthday boxes and wrapping paper, and the shredded remains were all over the ground and in the trees.

The five orangutans at the Woodland Park Zoo were taking part Saturday in the 40th birthday celebration of two of them — the twins Towan and Chinta.

With the two males weighing in at about 310 pounds each (with the estimated strength of six men, and arms spanning 7 feet) and the three females at about half that weight, this was a birthday as only apes could have one. They all got presents, and they all tore them apart.

The presents were blankets — orangutans use them to sleep on, for warmth and to protect their heads from sun or rain.

They also got 1-½-foot, capped PVC pipes with food inside. The orangutans like to twist open the pipes, use sticks to pull out the food, and then like to peer through the pipes and throw them around. The pipes are made of very thick PVC.

Photo © MARIAN DAVENPORT
Caption: Marian Davenport holds twin orangutan babies Towan and Chinta. Now 81, she recalls them clinging to her as she bottle-fed them human baby formula: “Sometimes I’d have a hard time prying them loose.”

In honor of the birthday party — and probably because it was a sunny day — zoo attendance was 7,600. The public wanted to see the large, gentle apes.

Great public interest

Life at the zoo for the orangutans is markedly different today from when Towan and Chinta were born on Feb. 19, 1968.

They were born at the zoo to great public interest, with this newspaper and radio station KVI-AM holding a contest to name them. Their names, said the zoo, are Indonesian and mean “big boss” for Towan, and “love” for Chinta, his sister.

But the great public interest back then did not translate into a change in their living conditions.

Four decades ago, the twins wound up in the Great Ape House, a sterile, concrete environment standard for zoos of that era.

Marian Davenport, 81, remembered it well.

Photo © WOODLAND PARK ZOO
Caption: Twin orangutan babies Towan and Chinta.

In 1968, she lived across the street from the zoo, and for her six children, “the zoo was their front yard,” she said. Back then, there was no entrance fee, no fences, no locked gates.

Then-zoo director Frank Vincenzi asked Davenport to form and supervise a staff to feed and care for the baby orangutans, on grounds that she already had experience raising six human babies.

The baby orangutans would cling tightly to Davenport as she bottle-fed them human baby formula.

“Sometimes I’d have a hard time prying them loose,” she said.

Davenport remembered life in the Ape House, which also housed the legendary Bobo the Gorilla.

“Bobo was behind glass. He’d run from one side to the other, hit a wall, run back, and hit the other wall,” she said. “Those things were pretty much concrete.”

The Great Ape House was torn down in 1996.

Today, the orangutans live in the Trail of Vines exhibit area. It’s about as natural as a city zoo can get, with large outdoor and indoor enclosures that include an artificial creek, poplars, willows, bamboo, artificial vines, and hammocks made of fire hose, strong enough to hold a relaxing male orangutan.

The human crowds on Saturday seemed to utter a steady stream of oohs and ahhs at the orangutans.

They tried to guess which were the birthday twins. They pressed digital cameras against the glass, while from the other side, the apes looked back with passing curiosity. On the zoo’s Web site, there is this explanation for why orangutans raised in a nursery by humans look closely into the eyes of visitors:

” … these orangutans have a greater interest in people and enjoy ‘visiting’ with them. They especially like young children and visitors who come on a regular basis. … ”

“Orangutan groupies”

The zookeepers have a term for some of the regular human visitors — “orangutan groupies.”

Among those attending Saturday’s party was Eric Sano, 46, a Seattle police officer.

He was 6 when he, his mother and younger brother went to the Bellevue Public Library and looked through books containing Indonesian names so they could enter the baby-orangutan-naming contest. Sano’s names won, over submissions such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Jack and Jill.”

Sano looked around the parade of moms and dads and babies in strollers. He hadn’t been to the zoo for a while, he said.

“All of these people came out for orangutans. It’s wild,” he said.

In the wild, orangutans live to 35 to 40 years.

In captivity — their daily lives monitored by zookeepers, antibiotics at the ready — orangutans can live into their 50s.

So Towan and Chinta, who have had their photos taken by the curious for 14,600 days, can look forward to at least 5,475 more.

Zookeepers say the orangutans have the ability to recognize certain words.

Apparently, “royalty check” aren’t among them.

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004197844_orangs24m.html