Mystery Animal of the Day

Mama gnome presents:

Mystery Animal of the Day

It is the largest "arboreal" animal, an animal that lives primarily in trees.

Its hands are similar to human hands with four fingers and an opposable thumb.

This animal is mostly covered with reddish brown hair.

If you guessed the Mystery Animal of the Day is: ORANGUTAN,

Mama gnome shakes your hand with her gnomish hand which also possesses an opposable thumb and she says,

"100% postconsumer paper is one of the best things in the world because it helps to save our forests."


photo from: Oliver Spalt

Orangutans are found in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the Sumatran orangutan as critically endangered and the Bornean orangutan as endangered.

Orangutans are in dire...yes, dire straits. According to IUCN:

This species is seriously threatened by logging (both legal and illegal), wholesale conversion of forest to agricultural land and oil palm plantations, and fragmentation by roads.

Animals are also illegally hunted and captured for the international pet trade but this appears to be more a symptom of habitat conversion, as orangutans are killed as pests when they raid fruit crops at the forest edge..."

This video is a snippet showing orphan orangutans rescued.


video from: BBCWorldwide

Yes, Mama gnome also has trouble wrapping her mind around this disturbing truth:
Orangutan mothers are killed (either shot down or hacked with machetes) by poachers to take
the baby orangutans to be sold in the black market as pets.

Do the people who paid to have an orangutan pet realize they paid to kill mother orangutans?


The Malay word 'orang utan' translates to "man of the forest."

"In 1994, Carel van Schaik of Duke University became the first anthropologist to document the use of tools among wild orangutans." He observed orangutans in the wild used tools and that this skill was social or "cultural" meaning it was learned by orangutans from watching other orangutans within their group.

An example van Schaik cited was how orangutans extracted seeds from a favorite local fruit "puwin." Puwin is covered with fine hairs as sharp as "plexiglass needles" according to van Schaik. To avoid being hurt or jabbed by the needle like hairs on the fruit, orangutans insert a fine stick inside the fruit to obtain the seeds without handling the puwin directly.

But if you watch this video you will be even more amazed at just how intelligent orangutans are.


video from: BBCEarth

What exactly is the impact of losing the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra? Is it equivalent to just losing the orangutans, the "people of the forest"?

No. The scope of the devastation goes beyond that. According to the WWF:

"The rate of deforestation in Indonesia is among the worst globally, with a staggering 80 percent of the nation's wood supplies thought to come from illegal sources, including nature reserves and other protected areas."

Mama gnome wants to reiterate: 80% of timber comes from illegal logging. Trees supposedly in protected areas and nature reserves are under no protection at all.

WWF also states:

"Conversion of forests into palm oil plantations has been shown to result in the loss of 80-100 percent of the mammal, reptile and bird species in the area."

"...Indonesia accounts for more than 14 percent of global deforestation. This represents almost half of the total global carbon emissions from deforestation and land degradation — almost twice as much as Brazil (the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases from land conversion), and more than three times Malaysia (the third largest)."

"Indonesia ranks fourth in the world in terms of total carbon emissions — behind the U.S., the European Union and China, and ahead of Brazil. Deforestation and forest degradation account for more than 83 percent of Indonesia's carbon emissions."

They are literally destroying rainforests and consequently contributing to global warming in pursuit of financial profit.

What can we do to help the orangutans and other species lost by rainforest destruction?

• Use papers that are made from postconsumer waste. If it's 100% postconsumer waste, that's one hundred percent even better.
• Recycle paper such as junk mail, shredded paper, telephone books, magazines you cannot donate to the library, your old school notes.
• Instead of using paper towels or paper napkins use cloth napkins, cloth rags, old shirts reused as rags. You'll save money as well as save trees.
• Support reforestation efforts.
• Give eco-friendly cards such as these from Arborday.org.
  
• Look for Fair Trade Certified labeling on products such as coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit, sugar and rice when shopping. They endorse products obtained through sustainable practices.

Mama gnome now feels like living in a tree for a while and if she spots illegal loggers trespassing in her forest she will hurl spiky puwin fruits at them to protect her baby and her trees.

If they persist to cut down trees despite being jabbed by the puwin fruit, Mama gnome will use her handy-dandy opposable thumbs and show them the way out of the rainforest, the fastest way out of the rainforest.

Mama gnome hopes you've enjoyed learning about the Mystery Animal of the Day.

In the meantime, please make your opposable thumbs equally handy in the tricky human world full of gadgets and tools and

Go Green.

(c) 2009 Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog