19th August: World Orangutan Day

World Orangutan Day is celebrated every August 19 to raise awareness worldwide about the care and protection of orangutans, in order to prevent their extinction as has happened to other creatures due to mistreatment, economic exploitation and indiscriminate hunting by humans. The date was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN).

Scientists have established that some 12,000 years ago orangutans numbered in the millions and lived from the island of Java, in Indonesia, to southern China. Today, they estimate that there are only about 60,000 orangutans left.

Orangutans’ worst enemy, mankind

We know that when an animal species is taken out of its habitat, as has happened to many orangutans, captured, exhibited and mistreated, it is the beginning of the end for a species.

This will only cause these creatures to suffer physical alterations and it will be difficult for them to return to a normal life over the years.

Human beings, in their eagerness to modify everything for their own benefit, have caused profound damage, not only to the environment, but to everything that lives in it, such as animals and plants.

In this sense, there is an urgent need to raise awareness so that this does not continue to happen, as in the case of orangutans, a species that is used in many countries to be exploited in circuses and put on display in zoos around the world.

Orangutan species

The three species of orangutans that exist today are present only in Indonesia and Malaysia.

– The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) inhabits the Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak and the Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan.

– The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) found in northern Sumatra Island.

– The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), discovered a few years ago, which also inhabits the northern part of Sumatra Island.

Orangutans are critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.