Join the race to save a great ape

As conservationists in Sumatra race to rescue orangutans from forests illegally converted to palm oil plantations, Auckland Zoo is calling on New Zealanders to take part in its 20 November Great Ape Race to help support these vital efforts.

The fun evening event (4pm-8.30pm) during Orangutan Caring Week (15-23 November) is a mini ‘Amazing Race’ around the Zoo grounds for both families and social/corporate groups, and a fundraiser for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP).

Only last week, SOCP rescued an adult female orangutan and her three-year-old daughter from an isolated patch of trees surrounded by miles of palm oil plantations in the northern region of Aceh Province’s Tripa peat swamps.

“From the Jantho release station, which Auckland Zoo helps fund, we’ve now relocated Merkati and baby Mawar into the adjoining protected Jantho Nature Reserve here in northern Sumatra, and they’re doing really well. If we hadn’t got them out they would have surely died within the next few months because there’s simply not enough food for them,” says SOCP director, Dr Ian Singleton.

Many other orangutans have been rescued by SOCP in recent months. Among them, babies – orphaned due to their mothers being killed, and in critical conditions from being kept illegally as pets.

Auckland Zoo primate team leader, Amy Robbins, who works with the SOCP team, says the biggest threat to the survival of the orangutan is deforestation of its habitat on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra – primarily to make way for oil palm plantations.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the extent of the deforestation first-hand in Sumatra and the trauma and suffering these primates that are 97% genetically the same as us, are being put through. What is heartening is the amazing rescue, rehabilitation and release work SOCP is engaged in that is giving a significant number of orangutans a second chance at life. SOCP is also playing a key role in habitat protection, education and scientific research,” says Ms Robbins.

Along with supporting the Great Ape Race, Auckland Zoo is encouraging New Zealanders to use its online Palm Oil-Free Shopping Guide to help reduce their palm oil consumption.

In 2012, palm oil consumption reached 50 million tonnes, 43.5% of which was not produced sustainably. By 2020, it is predicted world production will increase to 85.3 million tonnes, but less than a fifth of this will be produced sustainably.

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