User:Scale2095/OLES2129/draft

The Endangerment of Orangutans

Associated Wiki Project: Primates

Proposal:

I believe my article is an interesting and relevant topic that meets the requirements for notability, neutrality, and no original research. Firstly, it is globally known around the world and confirmed by the IUCN Red List that the Orangutan is critically endangered. Additionally, there are a significant amount of charities and people who are passionate about protecting Orangutans and preventing their extinction, thus I believe many people will be interested in reading this article. There is currently a Wikipedia article titled ‘Orangutan' however there is only one brief subheading about their conservation status, so for these reasons, I believe my topic is notable. This article will be purely factual, where I will include many statistics and facts and maintain a neutral perspective on the topic. There will be no original research as all content will derive from academic sources where research was conducted professionally.

Description:

The Endangerment of Orangutans

There are three species of the orangutan: the Bornean orangutan, the Sumatran orangutan, and the Tapanuli Orangutan. According to the IUCN Red List, the conservation status of all three species is critically endangered. The population of the orangutan has been steeply declining due to the gradual loss of their habitat. The population of Bornean orangutans has decreased by 50% in 60 years, and the population of the Sumatran orangutan has decreased by 80% in the last 75 years. It is estimated that between 1999 and 2015, the population of Bornean orangutans has decreased by over 100,000. The primary reason for habitat loss is unsustainable practice of timber extraction for the production of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, however orangutans are often killed by poaching, where often mothers are killed and infants are seized and sold on the black market as pets. There are various conservation sites and not-for-profit organisations that work to protect and prevent the extinction of the orangutan.

References

1. 10 Outstanding organisations working to save endangered orangutans - Borneo Orangutan Survival Australia. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.orangutans.com.au/news-bos-international/10-outstanding-organisations-working-to-save-endangered-orangutans/

This website is a useful source to begin research on my article as it provides a list of numerous organisations whose primary aims are to protect and prevent the extinction of orangutans. This factual website will be used primarily in the section titled ‘conservation’ where I will describe in detail the names of some of these organisations, and specifically, what they are doing to maintain the protection of orangutans. I will also describe the success rate of some of these organisations, and some of their main achievements. I have decided to include this information in my article as I believe it is informative for readers to know the large extent and type of charity work being completed for the protection of Orangutans.

2. Lang, K. (2019). Primate Factsheets: Orangutan (Pongo) Conservation. Retrieved from http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/orangutan/cons

This website will be most beneficial in the sections ‘Conservation’ and ‘Reason for Endangerment’. The author of this article has provided a comprehensive report on the conservation status of orangutans, and the reasons for this status. It provides numerous statistics in the main section, such as the number of orangutans lost over periods of time, rate of loss, and current population size. Additionally the website includes various subheadings that each list a reason for endangerment, and under this provides a detailed and factual description of what this reason entails, and includes reliable statistics. These statistics and facts are extremely significant as they show a concerning decline in population, thus I believe they will contribute to the notability of my article.

3. Meijaard, E., Buchori, D., Hadiprakarsa, Y., Utami-Atmoko, S., Nurcahyo, A., & Tjiu, A. et al. (2011). Quantifying Killing of Orangutans and Human-Orangutan Conflict in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Plos ONE, 6(11), e27491. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027491

This research article is a detailed and reliable source which provides a report on a research study conducted between April 2008 and September 2009 that measured, through interview based study, the rates, spatial distribution and causes of hunting of orangutans. The results of the study are fascinating and reveal relevant statistics that will be most useful in the ‘Reason for Endangerment’ and ‘History of Endangerment’ sections of my article. In the overview of the research article, it describes that “the study contributes to our understanding of the spatial variation in threats, and the underlying causes of those threats, which can be used to facilitate the development of targeted conservation management.” (Buchori, 2011) For this reason, I believe my article will be significant and worth writing about.  

4. Why Are Orangutans Endangered? - Current Results. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.currentresults.com/Endangered-Animals/why-are-orangutans-endangered.php

This factual website is most useful for my ‘Description’ and ‘Reason for Endangerment’ section. It will allow me to provide readers of my article with relevant insight into the various reasons that the population of orangutans has been severely declining in the past century. The website provides an introduction and several subheadings which list different reasons for endangerment. Under these subheadings there are comprehensive and factual descriptions of these reasons, including relevant statistics. This website will be most useful as it allows me to extract statistics that will inform readers of my article of the extent of orangutan population decline.

5. Voigt, M., Wich, S., Ancrenaz, M., Meijaard, E., Abram, N., & Banes, G. et al. (2018). Global Demand for Natural Resources Eliminated More Than 100,000 Bornean Orangutans. Current Biology, 28(5), 761-769.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.053

This relevant and reliable report provides the results of a study that measured the changes in land-cover in Borneo in large spatial scales, and how this affected the wildlife, namely Bornean orangutans in this area. The results provided in this report will be most useful in the ‘History of Endangerment’ and ‘Reasons for Endangerment’ sections, as I can inform readers of how the trends of timber extraction and poaching have changed over the years and why every year the percentage of orangutan loss increases. Similar to other statistical articles, I believe this report will contribute to the notability of my article as it reveals dramatic changes over time, information that I believe many people around the world are interested in.