Skip to main content

Orangutans and otters strike up darling friendship at Belgium zoo

Orangutans and otters strike up darling friendship at Belgium zoo

A family of orangutans and a romp of river otters are the furriest of friends, according to zookeepers in Belgium who purposefully arranged for the primates' and mustelids' habitats to intersect.
Photos of these curious bedfellows went viral after Pairi Daiza, a privately owned zoo and botanical garden located in Belgium's province of Hainaut, recently

"The presence of a family of Asian small-clawed otters in [the orangutans'] territories is not a coincidence," Mathieu Goedefroy, Pairi Daiza spokesperson, told Live Science in an email. Orangutans (genus Pongo) share 97% of their DNA with humans, and like their Homo sapiens' cousins, orangutans "must be entertained, occupied, challenged and kept busy mentally, emotionally and physically at all times," 

Goedefroy said.The zoo has five orangutans: a male and female couple named Gempa and Sinta, as well as a family of three — the 24-year-old daddy Ujian, 15-year-old mommy Sari and their 4-year-old son Berani, who arrived at Pairi Daiza in 2017 after they moved from Heidelberg Zoo in Germany.
The father-son duo Ujian and Berani have already "developed a very special bond with their neighbors," Goedefroy noted.
In addition to playing with their otter friends, the orangutans, a subspecies from Sumatra, have a number of other enrichment programs, "where our keepers entertain them all day long with mind games, riddles, puzzles and other stuff to train their intelligence," Goedefroy said.



All three species of orangutan are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This includes the Bornean (P. pygmaeus) and Sumatran (P. abelii) orangutans, as well as the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis), which lives in the Batang Toru forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and was confirmed as a distinct species in 2017. There are fewer than 800 known P. tapanuliensis orangutans in the wild, the IUCN reported.
In total, the orangutan population on Borneo and Sumatra stands at about 71,820 individuals, according to a 2016 report by the IUCN. These orangutans are endangered, in large part, because of deforestation (from palm oil exploitation in their forests) and poaching.


In the late 1990s, orangutans experienced catastrophic habitat loss in southern Borneo because of the Mega Rice Project. During this project, people tried to replace 2 million acres (1 million hectares) of forest with rice crops to help them achieve food self-sufficiency, according to Pairi Daiza's website. However, the project didn't work; no rice grew in the forest soil.

While the project was quickly abandoned, the forest still bears the scars: It is impossible for the native vegetation to return to these dried-out lands," Pairi Daiza said. The zoo has now raised funds to helip plant 11,000 trees in the devastated forests of Borneo, Goedefroy said.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beer production

Brewing  is the production of  beer  by steeping  a  starch  source (commonly cereal  grains, the most popular of which is  barley ) [1]  in water and  fermenting  the resulting sweet liquid with  yeast . It may be done in a  brewery  by a commercial brewer, at home by a  homebrewer , or by a variety of traditional methods such as communally by the  indigenous peoples in Brazil  when making  cauim . [2]  Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations including  ancient Egypt [3] and  Mesopotamia  brewed beer. [4]  Since the nineteenth century the  brewing industry  has been part of most western economies. The basic ingredients of beer are water and a  fermentable  starch source such as  malted barley . Most beer is fermented with a  brewer's yeast  and flavoured with  hops . [5]  Less widely used starch sources include  millet ,  sorghum and  cassava . [6]  Secondary sources ( adjuncts ), such as
Post a Comment
Read more

When to see a doctor If you can't ๐Ÿ˜ดsleep In over night or traveld sleep.you may be suffring from inosomia know more about inosomia

What is Insomnia? If you can't sleep, you may be wondering if you have insomnia. Insomnia is a complicated condition. What is the definition of insomnia? According to guidelines from a physician group,  insomnia  is difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, even when a person has the chance to do so. People with insomnia can feel dissatisfied with their sleep and usually experience one or more of the following symptoms : fatigue, low energy, difficulty concentrating, mood disturbances, and decreased performance in work or at school. How long does insomnia last? Insomnia may be characterized based on its duration.  Acute insomnia  is brief and often happens because of life circumstances (for example, when you can't fall asleep the night before an exam, or after receiving stressful or bad news). Many people may have experienced this type of passing sleep disruption, and it tends to resolve without any treatment. Chronic insomnia  is disrupted sleep t
Post a Comment
Read more

Ethanol fermentation

Ethanol fermentation Read in another language Watch this page Edit In ethanol fermentation, (1) one glucose molecule breaks down into two pyruvates. The energy from this exothermic reaction is used to bind the inorganic phosphates to ADP and convert NAD+ to NADH. (2) The two pyruvates are then broken down into two acetaldehydes and give off two CO2 as a by-product. (3) The two acetaldehydes are then converted to two ethanol by using the H- ions from NADH, converting NADH back intoNAD+.                     Ethanol fermentation , also called alcoholic fermentation , is a   biological process   which converts   sugars   such as glucose ,   fructose , and   sucrose   into cellular energy , producing   ethanol   and carbon dioxide   as by-products. Because yeasts   perform this conversion in the absence of   oxygen , alcoholic fermentation   is considered an   anaerobic process. It also takes place in some species of fish (including   goldfish   and carp ) where (
3 comments
Read more