Apes in the News

These articles contain information on the latest news of the Tripa Swamp fires and of the court case that is now under review.

Ministry of Environment Group Review Tripa Swamp 

Tripa Swamp Destroyer Can [be] Sentenced [to] 15 Years in Prison

Indonesia Aceh Police Question GeRAK Performance in the Case of Tripa Swamp

These articles are originally in Indonesian, translation provided by Google Translate.

05/05/2012
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This article is an update since a court ruling in March 2012 concerning the Tripa Swamp and the Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia. The court ruling has been controversial and has been disastrous for the Orangutan population in the Tripa swamp area. An appeal is being built.

27/04/2012
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INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION

calling on Indonesian President SBY to:

ENFORCE THE LAW

SAVE THE SUMATRAN ORANGUTANS

PROTECT THE TRIPA PEAT FORESTS

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

Thursday 26th April – Location: Worldwide

more information available:

http://endoftheicons.wordpress.com/

25/04/2012
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Bonny Mukombozi | AllAfrica | 21 April 2012 

A lowland orphaned gorilla named Ihirwe rescued from traffickers by the Rwanda Police last year will be returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

21/04/2012
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Plos one | Muehlenbein et al. | March 2012

Nature-based tourism can generate important revenue to support conservation of biodiversity. However, constant exposure to tourists and subsequent chronic activation of stress responses can produce pathological effects, including impaired cognition, growth, reproduction, and immunity in the same animals we are interested in protecting. Utilizing fecal samples (N = 53) from 2 wild habituated orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) (in addition to 26 fecal samples from 4 wild unhabituated orangutans) in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we predicted that i) fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations would be elevated on the day after tourist visitation (indicative of normal stress response to exposure to tourists on the previous day) compared to samples taken before or during tourist visitation in wild, habituated orangutans, and ii) that samples collected from habituated animals would have lower fecal glucocorticoid metabolites than unhabituated animals not used for tourism. Among the habituated animals used for tourism, fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were significantly elevated in samples collected the day after tourist visitation (indicative of elevated cortisol production on the previous day during tourist visitation). Fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were also lower in the habituated animals compared to their age-matched unhabituated counterparts. We conclude that the habituated animals used for this singular ecotourism project are not chronically stressed, unlike other species/populations with documented permanent alterations in stress responses. Animal temperament, species, the presence of coping/escape mechanisms, social confounders, and variation in amount of tourism may explain differences among previous experiments. Acute alterations in glucocorticoid measures in wildlife exposed to tourism must be interpreted conservatively. While permanently altered stress responses can be detrimental, preliminary results in these wild habituated orangutans suggest that low levels of predictable disturbance can likely result in low physiological impact on these animals.

06/04/2012
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29/03/2012
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