Effects on Wildlife

The forest in Indonesia play host to a wide variety of wildlife. Indonesia has the world’s third largest area of rainforest after Amazon and Africa’s Congo Basin. Indonesia’s rainforest contains about 25,000 species of plants which is about 10% of the world’s known plant species; 515 mammals species (12% of world’s known mammals species) whereby 135 of them are endangered.

All this plants and animals are definitely affected as the forest are cleared. Many of them have died in the fire while the surviving ones face the problem of starvation as their natural habitat and food source disappear. The existence of some endangered species is being threatened. Animals like the Sumatran tiger, Javan rhino and Sumatran Orangutans are among the affected species and in the last 70 years, deforestation had already caused the extinction of Bali Tiger and Java Tiger.

Sumatran Tiger

This species of tiger is the only surviving species of Indonesian tiger as other species like Bali tiger and Javan tiger has become extinct. The Sumatran tiger mainly inhabits the Indonesia island of Sumatra like its name suggest. It is classified as an endangered species by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the total population is estimated to be less than 500.

Sumatran-Tiger 2

Image: http://worldwildlife.org/photos/sumatran-tiger–5

Sumatran Tiger 1

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sumatran_Tiger_Berlin_Tierpark.jpg

Javan Rhino

The Javan rhinoceros also known as lesser one-horned rhinoceros inhibits dense, lowland rainforest or grassland. They used to populate the islands of Java and Sumatra but because of hunting and loss of habitat they have become critically endangered as well (classified by IUCN). These Javan rhinoceros has become so critically threatened that only a population of 40 is currently kept in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Java and there is no other known wild population.

javan rhino 1

javan rhino 2

Image: http://true-wildlife.blogspot.sg/2010/10/javan-rhinoceros.html

Sumatran Orangutans  

This species of orangutans is found only on the island of Sumatra and they tend to be thinner and have longer faces with pale red hair. This species is classified as critically endangered by IUCN as well and it is considered as one of the world’s 25most endangered primates. Only about 6,000 Sumatran Orangutans is estimated to still live in the wild as about 40% of their habitat is destroyed by the 1997 forest fires.

Pictures of orangutans being rescue and relocated

orangutan resuce 1

Image: http://time2transcend.wordpress.com/category/indonesia/

Deforestation Tripa Peat Swamp Forest in Aceh, Indonesia

Image: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2013/feb/14/sumatran-orangutan-tripa-indonesia-deforestation#/?picture=403557782&index=0

This is a video about the forest loss for the orangutan in Indonesia