On November 19,2009 around one in the afternoon, a group of 63 Indonesian police officers with two dump trucks supported by Park rangers and Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) rangers moved into an illegal dry ground strip mining area inside the very northern edge of Tanjung Puting National Park and began arresting illegal miners and confiscating their equipment. This area was close to one of Orangutan Foundation International’s mobile guard posts, called Kuta Laut, which consisted [...]

  Tanjung Puting National Park   Guard Post, OFI rangers, by Dr. Birutė Mary Galdikas.

Orangutans are the only great ape outside of Africa and they are uniquely adapted to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. During the Pleistocene, orangutans ranged throughout forests in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Vietnam and southern China. As climate slowly changed over nearly 1.8 million years, the orangutan range shifted southward. Orangutan populations have declined dramatically, perhaps by as much as 97%, in the 20th century

  Science Corner   Natural History, Socioecology, by Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas and Leslie Smith.