Come hang and race to save orangutans

Auckland Zoo is inviting visitors to ‘Come hang like an orangutan’ at a weekend of festivities on 12 and 13 November, and to take part in The Great Ape Race on 17 November, in celebration of Orangutan Caring Week (12 - 20 November).

The weekend activities include daily 12.30pm encounters for visitors to see these incredibly agile great apes in action, find out about why they are so endangered and how we can all help them just by shopping palm-oil free.

Children will be able to hang like an orangutan on the kids’ bungy trampolines, have their face painted, and with the grown-ups, watch trapeze artists performing orangutan-styled sets.

Sample bags of palm oil-free goodies will be available to the first 500 visitors for a gold coin donation, and everyone can enter the draw to win a shopping trolley full of palm oil-free groceries.

Later in the week, those with a competitive streak can get a team of two to four people together for The Great Ape Race, which the Zoo is running with help from its friends at Lactic Turkey Events. This fun ‘oranguteering’ event around the Zoo on Thursday 17 November (5.30pm to 9pm) is a Zoo fundraiser for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). No orienteering experience is required, just plenty of energy and a great team spirit.

“With just 6,600 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, the race to save these extraordinary animals has never been more urgent,” says Auckland Zoo Primate team leader, Amy Robbins, who has worked with SOCP helping to rehabilitate rescued orangutans and release them into Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.

Mrs Robbins says orangutans are known as the ‘gardeners of the forest’ because of the vital ecological role they play as seed dispersers of hundreds of tree and plant species. But in both Sumatra and Borneo where they live, their forests are being logged and burned to plant oil palms, an action that is also fuelling climate change.

“In Indonesia, 3,400km2 of rainforest and peat swamp forest is being converted into oil palm plantations every year. In Kiwi-speak that’s 54 rugby fields an hour! Next week we’ll celebrate the sixth birthday of our youngest orangutan, Madju (whose Indonesian name means “to make progress”). It’s devastating to think that in his six short years of life, forest area equivalent to over 52,500 rugby fields has been destroyed.”

It is predicted that if this deforestation trend continues, the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant and Asian rhino could all be extinct in the wild by 2022.

“As individual consumers, it is in our power to help protect these animals and habitats and slow the uncontrolled expansion of the palm oil industry,” says Mrs Robbins.

“We can reduce our palm oil consumption and choose to buy palm-oil free products. With palm oil an ingredient in at least one in every 10 supermarket products, many of us taking such action can make a real difference. This Orangutan Caring Week we invite everyone to check out our online Buy Palm Oil Free shopping guide and use it when doing the weekly shop. See if your favourite foods are palm oil-free. If they’re not, you might discover alternatives,” says Mrs Robbins.

Zoo director Jonathan Wilcken says along with supporting wildlife conservation projects in Sumatra, Auckland Zoo is committed to avoiding or minimising the use or sale of products that contain palm oil.

“Our ultimate goal is to be palm oil-free, and that’s a journey. We would love all New Zealanders to join us on this journey, so that together we can ensure that New Zealand does not help create a future without these magnificent great apes,” says Mr Wilcken.

Note to editors:

Event details

• Orangutan Caring Week 2011 is being celebrated internationally from 12 to 20 November
• ‘Hang like an orangutan’, Saturday 12 November to Sunday 13 November, 10am – 3pm. Normal Zoo admission prices apply. All activities will be a gold coin donation in addition to normal Zoo admission, and free for Friends of the Zoo. Our thanks to supporters Hell Pizza, Lush, Proper Crisps and Whittaker’s
• The Great Ape Race, Thursday 17 November, 5.30pm – 9pm. Cost: $25 for adults, $10 for children (aged 4 – 14) and $60 for a family (2 adults, 2 children). Includes Zoo admission. Pre-registration required. To register visit www.aucklandzoo.co.nz or phone (09) 360 3805. This event is raising funds for the Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund to support the work of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) and is being run with the Zoo’s friends, Lactic Turkey Events and Auckland Orienteering Club. Our thanks to supporters Frucor, Rebel Sport and Whittaker’s

Orangutan Fast Facts

• The orangutan is the largest tree-dwelling animal on Earth. The only great ape from Asia, its home range is restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Indonesia
• The Bornean orangutan is listed as Endangered and the Sumatran orangutan as Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List – www.iucnredlist.org )
• The biggest threat to the survival of the orangutan is deforestation of its habitat (primarily to make way for oil palm plantations, and logging by the paper industry) Visit www.aucklandzoo.co.nz for more information about palm oil
• The genetic make-up of the orangutan is 97.4% similar to humans
• Orangutans are arboreal, meaning they spend almost their entire life in the trees. They have adapted to this lifestyle with their long and strong forearms and flexible shoulder joints. Orangutans’ arms are twice the length of their legs. Males have a 2m armspan
• In Borneo, the orangutan gives birth just once every eight years. In Sumatra, some females give birth only once every 10 years, and females do not breed until they are 17 years old

Palm oil Fast Facts

• Palm oil comes from the oil palm plant, native to West Africa. It was introduced to Indonesia and Malaysia in the early 1900s. Today these two countries produce more than 85% of the world’s palm oil
• Indonesia alone, converts 3,400km2 (340,000 ha) of forest into oil palm annually – that’s 54 rugby fields every hour.
• Nearly half of Sumatra’s forests disappeared between 1985 and 2007. In the last decade, close to 80% of deforestation in the Sumatran peatlands (an area that provides key orangutan habitat and vital carbon stores) was driven by the expansion of oil palm plantations. (September 2011 UNEP – ‘Orangutans and the economics of sustainable forest management in Sumatra’ http://www.unep.org/pdf/orangutan_report_scr.pdf )
• Palm oil is used in one in every 10 supermarket products, including food, cosmetics, cleaning and bath products. The palm kernel is also used to make animal feed
• For Auckland Zoo’s Buy Palm Oil Free Shopping Guide, visit www.aucklandzoo.co.nz