In the early eighties, the jungles of Indonesia were home to more than 300,000 orangutans. Nowadays, the destruction and degradation of their natural habitat has meant that this figure does not exceed 130,000. A number that includes the three species of this primate that inhabit the planet: Borneon, Sumatran and Tapanuli.
Every year, International Orangutan Day is celebrated on August 19th, one of the most endangered apes in the world and whose population has been reduced by more than 60% in fifty years. On this occasion, BIOPARC Fuengirola calls on the imperative need to protect orangutans. The figures confirm the urgent need to implement initiatives to promote their conservation and protection. The fact is that, according to the IUCN Red List, all three orangutan species are in ‘critical danger of extinction’ and all of them show a decreasing trend in their population.
Since the opening of BIOPARC Fuengirola in 2001, then Fuengirola Zoo, the park has been actively participating in the conservation and reproduction program of the species at European level (EEP), in an effort for their ex-situ conservation. Currently, BIOPARC Fuengirola is home to a group of Bornean orangutans made up of two females and their corresponding offspring: Mukah, Suli, Sabangau and Neo.
The orangutans of Borneo do not exceed 104,700. These figures represent 64 percent less than the 288,500 recorded at the end of the seventies. If their decline continues at the same rate, as well as the threats that cause it, most of the population will become extinct in the next 50 years.
Wild orangutan populations are threatened by extensive habitat loss and land-use change due to logging, palm oil production, mining, and agricultural expansion. Deforestation is by far the most serious threat to orangutans, and over the past three decades, approximately 80% of the irreplaceable orangutan habitat has been lost. In the case of the Borneo orangutans, native to the island of Borneo, they are one of the most emblematic primate species in the rainforests of the Asian continent.
Bioparc Fuengirola has been committed to the fight for the Borneo orangutan and its habitat, since 2013. Through the Bioparc Foundation, it collaborates with the Borneo Nature Foundation for the in-situ conservation of the species, through habitat restoration and reforestation in the Sabangau forest, in Borneo.