the charnel house
monica | [anthropology, archaeology, classics] also some fandom, whoops
Doing my usual yearly Thylacine research and giving myself the sads.
80 years since the last known capture, 77 since the last known death. What I wouldn’t give to see this marsupial brought back from extinction.
It’s eerie to see the video of an animal you can no longer ever see
One day we’ll have this same experience over pandas.
And tigers and grizzly bears at the current rates of poaching and encroachment of habitat respectively.
and lemurs and western lowland gorillas and orangutans and rhinoceros and all sorts of birds and marine life
Every week we look at a different endangered species.
Week of Jan.6-Jan.12
The name Orangutan means “man of the forest” in the Malay language. There are 2 species of Orangutan. Bornean and Sumatran, and they only differ a little in appearance and behavior. They are endangered, combined there is about 48500 left in the wild.
Fun Facts:
- Orangutans can weigh up to 200 pounds.
- They share 96.4% of their genes with humans!
- They are highly intelligent creatures.
- They are the “gardeners of the forest”
- A mother only gives birth every 3-5 years.
Much of the decline of the species is due to their slow reproductive rate, as well as, deforestation, hunting and illegal trade of young, and illegal trade of orangutan skull.
The Critically Endangered Sumatran Orangutan
The Sumatran orangutan has been classified as critically endangered by the IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The latest data estimates that there are now only around 6,600 remaining in the wild, a drastic drop from the estimated 85,000 in 1900.
Orangutans were historically found in forests across Sumatra but are now restricted to just two provinces: North Sumatra and Aceh.
There are less than 864,000 hectares of orangutan habitat left on the island. Experts suggest that they could be the first Great Ape species to become extinct in the wild.
The greatest threats to their survival are habitat loss and the illegal pet trade. Sumatra lost 48% of its forests in the 20 years prior to 2007.
Large areas of orangutan habitat have been lost or degraded due to the spread of oil palm plantations into their forest homes.
Human-orangutan conflict is now frequent in agricultural areas, as orangutans are forced out of degraded forest fragments in search of enough food for survival.
For farmers, raided or damaged crops means that this critically endangered species is often considered to be an agricultural pest and killed. via @MailOnline
Rarest Gorilla Revealed in Camera Trap Video
An extraordinary new video reveals the first camera trap footage of the Cross River gorilla, the world’s rarest gorilla.
Although the video, shot by Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, is only a few minutes long, it presents a vivid microcosm of these primates’ lives — their suffering at the hands of humans, their struggle, but also their pride.
As the footage (see it below) begins, you can see one gorilla stopping briefly to rest under a tree, but then compelled to move forward by the troop. When another spots the camera trap, it briefly charges, Tarzan style, toward the screen, beating its chest.
Pelangsi the Orangutan, the latest victim of the palm oil industry in Indonesia, is lucky to be alive. The young male was close to death when a team from International Animal Rescue cut him loose from a snare that kept him a prisoner without food or water for 10 days. (Read more)
“Green” is about the rainforest of Indonesia. It is 48 min long, it is available for free download and copyright free for all non commercial screenings. The film has no narration, it is thus accessible to all nationalities. It was produced independently and free of all commercial or political attachment. Please don’t hesitate to screen the film wherever you feel appropriate.
To help save the Indonesian rainforest, we must choose to change our consumer habits so as to not be part of the destruction. If we are enough to do so, we can make a significant impact on the industries behind the destruction and make them change. All it takes is avoiding palm oil, tropicals hardwoods and paper from tropical countries.
If you live in countries such as Australia, New Zealand or the UK, then you will understand how frustrating it is trying to avoid palm oil when shopping, because there are no laws on the mandatory labelling of palm oil. This means companies usually don’t label palm oil on their products. The list below consists of a number of different ways in which you can detect and avoid palm oil when shopping:
- The most common name palm oil is hidden under is ‘vegetable oil’. Almost all Asian products or products made in Asia that have ‘vegetable oil’ written on the label means that it is palm oil.
- Most pre-packaged snack foods made by well known, large corporate-giants (Nestle, Unilever etc) contain palm oil.
- If a product’s saturated fat content is over 40% of it’s total fat content, it will almost always have palm oil in it.
- Ingredients with the word ‘palm’ in them are palm oil or are derived from the oil palm fruit (as shown in the ingredient list below).
- Nearly all home-brand/no-name pasties and confectionery will contain palm oil (Coles/Safeway donuts, muffins, cakes, chocolate, confectionery etc).
- If you are not sure whether a product contains palm oil,either type the product name into google along with ‘palm oil’ and see the search results, or call the company and ask if they use palm oil.
- To avoid palm oil, look out for products that contain alternative vegetable oils, such as 100% sunflower oil, corn oil or canola oil. However, please note that Soybean oil is often associated with the destruction of rainforest in Brazil.
IMPORTANT:
Just because a product says it is “Organic” or “Cruelty-Free” does not mean it doesn’t contain palm oil. In fact, most natural/organic products do contain palm oil - because palm oil is a very much a natural ingredient. It’s the way it is produced that is far from natural, which is something many companies fail to realise.
Looks like about 200 orangutans were killed. I’ll post more in the am.
Sumatran Orangutan: “It is no longer several years away, but just a few months or even weeks before this iconic creature disappears”
Hundreds of orangutans are believed to have died in fires deliberately lit by palm oil companies in the last few weeks. Conservationists say the rare Sumatran orangutan could now be wiped out within weeks.Read more here.
thedevildraws: The highly endangered Tasmanian Devil. They are becoming extinct due to Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease, the only form of contagious cancer in the world.
A baby bonobo born at Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary. Apart from a handful of animals born on site, the vast majority cared for at Lola are orphans, primarily as a result of the bushmeat trade.
this is a very important subject, but lo, this tag #the colin morgan of bonobos
