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Genetic study shows humans have pushed orangutans to the brink of extinction
January 24, 2006A new study published in the open-access journal PLoS Biology shows strong genetic evidence of a catastrophic collapse in orangutan populations living in the fragmented forests of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia.
Michael Bruford, and their colleagues report that the collapse occurred within the past hundred years, and most likely within the past decades-coinciding with massive deforestation, which began in the region in the 1890s and accelerated in the 1950s and 1970s.
"This is the first time that a recent and alarming decline of a great ape population-brought about by man-has been demonstrated, dated, and quantified using genetic information," says Goossens, a wildlife geneticist at Cardiff University who conducted the genetic study. "Developing effective conservation and recovery programs depends on determining when the decline of a population began, its trajectory, and the original population size."
For their study, the researchers collected hair from tree nests and feces found under nests or near orangutans encountered along the Kinabatangan River. Two hundred orangutans were identified using genetic markers called microsatellites. "We used the DNA information to simulate population history and detect evidence of a population decline," Goossens explains.
"The genetic study shows that there is a high risk of extinction of the orangutan in Sabah in the near future if this decline goes on unabated," says Marc Ancrenaz, who also participated in the study. "The major threat to the long-term survival of orangutans in Sabah is linked with oil palm plantation development and forest destruction. Illegal killing also contributes to this decline."
Sixty percent of orangutans found in Sabah are living outside the network of protected areas. "The largest population of the East Bornean orangutan subspecies existing on Earth occurs in the forests of the Sabah Foundation concession, with a population of about 5,000 individuals," says Laurentius Ambu, Sabah Wildlife Department's Deputy Director. Most of these forests are exploited for timber under natural forest management, but orangutans cannot survive in industrial tree plantations.
"This population will disappear forever if these forests are converted to oil-palm agriculture," Ambu says. "The results of our genetic study underscore the need to act now to protect the long-term survival of the species. The animals still show enough genetic diversity to stabilize, if immediate steps are taken to reconnect remnant forest patches and halt further deforestation."
Public Library of Science
For their study, the researchers collected hair from tree nests and feces found under nests or near orangutans encountered along the Kinabatangan River. Two hundred orangutans were identified using genetic markers called microsatellites. "We used the DNA information to simulate population history and detect evidence of a population decline," Goossens explains.
"The genetic study shows that there is a high risk of extinction of the orangutan in Sabah in the near future if this decline goes on unabated," says Marc Ancrenaz, who also participated in the study. "The major threat to the long-term survival of orangutans in Sabah is linked with oil palm plantation development and forest destruction. Illegal killing also contributes to this decline."
Sixty percent of orangutans found in Sabah are living outside the network of protected areas. "The largest population of the East Bornean orangutan subspecies existing on Earth occurs in the forests of the Sabah Foundation concession, with a population of about 5,000 individuals," says Laurentius Ambu, Sabah Wildlife Department's Deputy Director. Most of these forests are exploited for timber under natural forest management, but orangutans cannot survive in industrial tree plantations.
"This population will disappear forever if these forests are converted to oil-palm agriculture," Ambu says. "The results of our genetic study underscore the need to act now to protect the long-term survival of the species. The animals still show enough genetic diversity to stabilize, if immediate steps are taken to reconnect remnant forest patches and halt further deforestation."
Public Library of Science
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Ancestral genome of present-day African great apes & humans had burst of DNA sequence duplication
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Genomics study provides insight into the evolution of unique human traits
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Study suggests evolutionary link between diet, brain size in orangutans
In a study of orangutans living on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, scientists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have found what they say is the first demonstration in primates of an evolutionary connection between available food supplies and brain size.
Predicting species abundance in the face of habitat loss
Habitat loss poses the greatest threat to the survival of a species, and often precipitates the demise of top predators and wide-ranging animals, like the Siberian tiger and the orangutan.
Most human-chimp differences due to gene regulation - not genes
The vast differences between humans and chimpanzees are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes themselves, researchers from Yale, the University of Chicago, and the Hall Institute in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, argue in the 9 March 2006 issue of the journal Nature.
Researchers assemble second non-human primate genome
A multi-center team has deposited the draft genome sequence of the rhesus macaque monkey into free public databases for use by the worldwide research community, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
Woods Hole Research Center scientist part of international initiatives to save the great apes
The extinction of the great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) and orangutans - is imminent if strict conservation practices are not implemented in the immediate future.
Retrovirus Invasion in Primate Evolution; Limiting the Transmission of Rabies: Press Release from PLoS Biology
The Chimp Genome Reveals Retroviral Invasions in Primate Evolution It's been known for a long time that only 2% - 3% of human DNA codes for proteins. Much of the rest of our genomes - often referred to as junk DNA - consists of retroelements, some of which can occasionally replicate and move to a new location in the genome.
The Endangered Orangutan and Tiger: PLoS Biology Press Release
Tracking orangutans from the sky From the hundreds of thousands of orangutans that once ranged throughout southeast Asia, only two orangutan species now inhabit just two countries: Indonesia and Malaysia. The Sumatran orangutan is listed as critically endangered, the Bornean, endangered. In a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Marc Ancrenaz and colleagues report an innovative method for reliably counting orangutan numbers from the sky, and estimate that the entire population in Sabah has dropped by 35% in the past 20 years. Conservation efforts depend on having reliable data on population size, density, and distribution, but estimates of orangutan numbers in Sa
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