Sobering Footage Shows Endangered Orangutan Fighting Loggers to Protect His Home

Roughly six months ago, from the perspective here at the end of 2018, a heart-wrenching video was captured of an intelligent orangutan apparently trying to defend him precious home from demolition, as loggers wanted to claim his home as their own.

In the Sungai Putri forest of Boreno, Indonesia, home of the thick canopy of forest that makes plants like kratom fruitful to grow in, the poor orangutan was seen fighting back and lashing out against a digger, while loggers bulldozed through the scene without a lot of concern for the well-being of animals like the orangutan.

The film was captured all the way back in 2013, which was now over 5 years ago, but it was just released about 6 months ago. It was captured by International Animal Rescue, an animal welfare charity. If they managed to capture this one clip with the most likely short amount of time they got to sort of infiltrate and see what was going on, who knows what couldn’t be captured on camera.

Shocking Footage Shows An Orangutan Seeking Refuge From Bulldozer

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAYThis dramatic footage shows the devastating impact deforestation is having on precious orangutan habitat. This desperate orangutan is frantically seeking refuge from the destructive power of the bulldozer; a machine that has already decimated everything else around him. Despite all the obstacles thrown at them, our team were able to rescue this orangutan and bring him to safety. Unfortunately, scenes like this are becoming more and more frequent in Indonesia. Deforestation has caused the orangutan population to plummet; habitats are destroyed and orangutans are left to starve and die.We need to ACT NOW. This World Environment Day, plant a tree and help us rebuild and protect precious orangutan habitat. The situation is critical, and we are running out of time. PLANT A TREE TODAY: https://internationalanimalrescue.org/plant-tree?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=World_Environment_Day_2018&utm_content=videoPlease share this post far and wide. Thank you.

Posted by International Animal Rescue on Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The charity posted the clip to Facebook, writing:

“This desperate orangutan is frantically seeking refuge from the destructive power of the bulldozer; a machine that has already decimated everything else around him.”

In this situation there’s actually some good news behind the very sad story we initially hear about. The charity was able to successfully rescue that orangutan from that situation, in which it may have lost his life essentially trying to defend his home, confused about what in the world was going on and why he was being ripped out of his environment.

The charity explained that logging has had a negative effect on the homes of orangutans and related animals who still may be able flourish in the thick equatorial jungles of Indonesia if it weren’t for activity like this, and often the animals are forced to migrate elsewhere, to areas with people which “frequently leads to conflict with humans.”

According to other NGO’s, in the past 60 years the global population of orangutans has been cut in half sadly, while 55 percent of their natural habitats have been destroyed in just the past 20 years: that’s since some time around 1998.

People who aren’t familiar with the different types of great apes may not know that orangutans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia.

The only place on Earth where orangutans are still found, is within the rain-forests of Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia.

There are technically two species of orangutan, one from Sumatra, and one from Borneo. All three orangutan species are considered to be critically endangered, even though they are among the very most intelligent primates on Earth, using a variety of sophisticated tools.

Orangutans even have the ability to construct elaborate beds, sleeping nests every night out of leaves, foliage, and branches.

These animals are so intelligent, the way they build a nest is this routine, documented thing where they use roughly the same method every time.

(Image credit: news.mongabay)

According to Wikipedia: “Construction of a night nest is done by following a sequence of steps. Initially, a suitable tree is located, orangutans being selective about sites though many tree species are used. The nest is then built by pulling together branches under them and joining them at a point. After the foundation has been built, the orangutan bends smaller, leafy branches onto the foundation; this serves the purpose of and is termed the “mattress”.”

The illegal pet trade, palm oil cultivation, the destruction of the Indonesian rain-forest and all kinds of other things currently endanger these beautiful, intelligent creatures.