BORNEO - ISLAND IN THE CLOUDS
Product Description
Saving the Orangs
By Anne Russon
Glendon College of York University, Toronto, Canada
Balikpapan Orangutan Society
Ten years ago, I set off for Borneo to study orangutans. I knew how closely related they were to humans, but when I actually experienced the orangutans first hand, I found the similarities fascinating.
That orangutans resemble us should not be a surprise. Orangutans are great apes, our closest living relatives on earth. They are our cousins, and it is largely because we are all "family," so to speak, that we resemble one another so closely. Because of our similarities, great apes offer one of the best avenues in existence for understanding human origins and human nature. Only four species of our cousins remain alive on earth today -- chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans -- and every one is at serious risk of extinction. If we lose them, we close an important window on ourselves.
It was not with conservation in mind that I headed for Borneo, but orangutans' own minds. What intrigued me about great apes, as it has intrigued many others, is the possibility that their minds may be among the most sophisticated on earth. Knowing little about Borneo, rainforests or orangutans, I figured my best chance to meet orangutan minds was on shared ground. I was lucky. Shared ground existed in the form of centers that help rehabilitate ex-captive orangutans to free forest life. Ex-captive orangutans, as the name suggests, lived at one time as human captives. Some suffered abominable conditions in captivity -- tiny cages, starvation, and abuse -- but others lived as members of human families, in their homes and villages. Some of these orangutans became bicultural, comfortable with both human and orangutan worlds, and their skill with human ways offered me an exceptional avenue of understanding how their minds operate.
TO READ HEAR AND SEE MORE CLICK THE LINK BELOW
Ten years ago, I set off for Borneo to study orangutans. I knew how closely related they were to humans, but when I actually experienced the orangutans first hand, I found the similarities fascinating.
That orangutans resemble us should not be a surprise. Orangutans are great apes, our closest living relatives on earth. They are our cousins, and it is largely because we are all "family," so to speak, that we resemble one another so closely. Because of our similarities, great apes offer one of the best avenues in existence for understanding human origins and human nature. Only four species of our cousins remain alive on earth today -- chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans -- and every one is at serious risk of extinction. If we lose them, we close an important window on ourselves.
It was not with conservation in mind that I headed for Borneo, but orangutans' own minds. What intrigued me about great apes, as it has intrigued many others, is the possibility that their minds may be among the most sophisticated on earth. Knowing little about Borneo, rainforests or orangutans, I figured my best chance to meet orangutan minds was on shared ground. I was lucky. Shared ground existed in the form of centers that help rehabilitate ex-captive orangutans to free forest life. Ex-captive orangutans, as the name suggests, lived at one time as human captives. Some suffered abominable conditions in captivity -- tiny cages, starvation, and abuse -- but others lived as members of human families, in their homes and villages. Some of these orangutans became bicultural, comfortable with both human and orangutan worlds, and their skill with human ways offered me an exceptional avenue of understanding how their minds operate.
TO READ HEAR AND SEE MORE CLICK THE LINK BELOW
