(telegraph.co.uk) The Orang-utans of Borneo are facing an unprecedented threat as their habitat is destroyed to satisfy increasing global demands for bio-fuel.
As jungles are rapidly replaced by palm oil plantations, the great apes starve and are hunted, mutilated, burnt and snared by workers protecting their crops.At a rehabilitation centre run by the charity Borneo Orang-utan Survival, there are more than 600, mostly orphaned babies. Lone Nielsen, the centre’s director, estimates that for each of the 227 animals they rescued last year, five more were killed in central Borneo alone.
“There are broken bones, cracked skulls, burns, internal injuries,” said Miss Nielsen. “The plantation workers beat them because they want to catch them and the only way you can catch an orang-utan is to knock it unconscious.” (more…)
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