The Wild Man of Borneo

Photographer: Nacho Libre
From: Day 278 - the leeches turned me into a cross-dresser

The Wild Man of Borneo

Once found throughout Southeast Asia, the orang-utan ape now survives only in small populations across the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The Bornean species is highly endangered and only 55,000 are estimated to live in the jungles of Borneo today. Orang-utan habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires has increased rapidly in the last decade and a major factor is the conversion of vast areas of lowland native forest to oil palm plantations for the production of palm oil. This forces the orang-utans to move to higher forests in search of sanctuary, but the result is that the variety, quantity and quality of food in that higher area can’t support them.