Most Endangered Orangutan Population Found Hidden

Orangutan seen wandering Hampapak Island, in the middle of the River

by SARAWAK, KOMPAS.com ,  as many as 200 individual orangutan subspecies Pongo pygmaeus pgymaeus found in Borneo region, precisely in the area of ​​140 square kilometers, Batang Ai National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Orangutan orangutan species are known to be the most rare. Its population is now living up to 3000-4500. A total of 2,000 of whom are estimated to live in Batang Ai National Park and Sanctuary Lanjak Entimau, Malaysia.

Previously unknown population was discovered through research at the Wildlife Conservation Society last February 2013. They found 995 orangutan nests, including nests "fresh" which indicates that orangutans use these areas.

Nests can indeed indicate the existence of orangutans in a region. Previous research in Kalimantan, Indonesia, showed that orangutans are able to bend and weave twigs that can be used as a "home".

"They just bend. They can live in it and then you can view it as archaeological artifacts," says Roland Ennos from the University of Manchester in their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year.

LiveScience reported on Thursday (04/11/2013), related to the discovery of this new population of orangutans, Malaysian Government plans to increase the protection of the population in the national park where it was found.