Save the people of the forest Orangutans are a unique species of monkeys that inhabit the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. They have interesting living conditions, eating habits and procreation cycles that help their environment, but they are in grave danger of extinction. Orangutans are being hunted and killed and their homes destroyed by deforestation for palm oil plantations. They are adopting conservation methods to save the species, but in the meantime, the population of these creatures continues to decline at an alarming rate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The orangutan is a type of ape whose population resides on only two islands in the world: Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia, apart from the zoos that keep them in captivity. They are one of the world's four great apes, along with gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees. The orangutan occupies the forest, living under the canopy of trees, where it builds nests, searches for food and is safe from predators. The place they occupied gave them the name “orangutan” based on the words orang and hutan, because in the Indonesian and Malay languages ​​those words mean “forest person”. They can live to be almost 40 years old and even longer in captivity. Together with chimpanzees, this species is the most genetically similar species to humans among all primates, because their DNA is approximately 97% the same as ours. At the moment, the orangutan species is in grave danger of extinction. Their population is declining at an alarming rate, starting with around 60,000 and then losing 20,000 over a ten-year period. The causes of the decline in orangutan numbers include not only poaching, but also habitat loss due to deforestation and Indonesian palm oil plantations (Orangutan Conservancy, 2011). Orangutans help grow and change their environment by picking fruit from trees and scattering the seeds they leave behind, although, because they are omnivores, their diet may also include other small animals. Other species of environmental organisms, such as insects, also depend on the activities of an orangutan, so if the ape's population were to decline too rapidly, other animals would be drastically affected (Republik, 2007). Unfortunately, poaching, hunting and the pet trade have contributed greatly to the decline of orangutans on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Borneo and Sumatra are the main islands that make up the island countries of Indonesia and Malaysia, where the market for palm oil is high and plantations grow unchecked. A good portion of the plantations are not even legally established. When it comes to human/orangutan interaction, animals are killed and/or kidnapped due to farm disturbances, self-defense (Meijaard, 2011), and even food consumption (Thompson, 2010). Orangutans are also victims of deforestation due to the palm oil market in Indonesia. In addition to the harvesting of palm fruit, nut and kernel, palm oil is used as an important ingredient in the food of that area, so palm oil plantations drive the food consumption market (Kilby, 1967). Orangutan conservation methods are being adopted both to protect orangutans that already populate the forests and to reintroduce rescued orangutans that were once captive into the wild. These include patrols and replanting of environmentally familiar trees. One factor that contributes greatly to the decline of the orangutan population is their reproduction rate. It takes an orangutan just under a decade to reach puberty, and the average age for having children isof one child every eight years. Their rate of procreation does not come close to the rate of death by humans. The hunting of these monkeys and the deforestation of their homes, combined with their long birth cycles, suggests a rapid decline in their numbers. Another factor is that these monkeys build their houses in the tops of trees. (Orangutan Conservancy, 2011) They are non-terrestrial creatures, and their ambidextrous appendages and flexible arms help them maneuver primarily by swinging through trees. They almost never walk on the ground, so the more trees cut down by loggers, the harder it will be for an orangutan to survive. Orangutans who lose their homes must retreat or wander to farms and plantations, where they have a high probability of being killed by workers (Orangutan Conservancy, 2011). The species' mother-child relationships are also strained when affected by humans. A mother orangutan will raise her baby for six years, and even then the offspring will stay close and follow the parent for even more years (Orangutan Conservancy, 2011). Poachers hunt and kill mothers so they can kidnap the young for the pet trade, and in cases where the children are left alive and alone, they have little chance of surviving alone in the forest because they have no parents to raise them and raise them. to learn from, leading to further population decline. Deforestation plays a fundamental role in endangering the species. Loggers and plantation workers are constantly cutting down trees to make room for palm oil plantations in their place, and even more trees are being harvested for their palm oil. There are also numerous human-caused fires that destroy orangutans' homes and force them to move deeper into the forest. In addition to the fact that the plantations are depleting the only thing the orangutans use to build their home, the people who work on the plantations are not provided with food, among other poor conditions. Sometimes, the last resort available to workers is to hunt the animals eaten by the monkeys or eat the orangutans themselves (Chermayeff, 2009). Since they share almost the same genome, eating an orangutan wouldn't be that different from cannibalism. Hunting has also decreased the population of these creatures; not only for food or to disturb the farm, but also to be kept as pets. The illegal trade in pets has been going on for over 50 years, and not just because they end up in zoos or circuses (Butler, 2009). Orangutans constantly suffer from abuse and exploitation by humans, if not even being killed by them. The trade meant that male orangutans were trained to perform boxing matches for people's entertainment. Even with the pain they endure from punching each other, monkey training involves starvation, drugs and beatings by trainers. People can sexually abuse female orangutans. Recently, a 12-year-old woman named Pony was kept in a brothel in the small town of Keremgpangi, Borneo. After being groomed for prostitution (shaved and covered in human cosmetics), people, mostly workers on logging sites and palm oil plantations, would watch her perform or sexually abuse her. When Animal Rescue arrived to take Pony away, people affiliated with the brothel threatened them with guns and it took 30 officers to confiscate her (Perez, 2014). This brings out conservation methods to save orangutans and their habitat. After the animals have been rescued from poor treatment by humans, they are relocated and reintroduced into the wild. Pony was one?