With their large body size and their slow speed, orangutans are easy targets for poachers.

A source of food

Source: Mail Online

In certain regions of Kalimantan, orangutan hunting is still taking place for the food source known as bush meat. This phenomenon has increased with easier access to the orangutan forests. Poachers who engage in such illegal activities are either ignorant of the anti-poaching laws, or are in disregard of the law due to hunger and/or poverty.

In most cases, orangutans whose natural habitats that have been destroyed by the forest fires fall prey to poachers. Escaping the fires and wandering into villages and/or plantations to seek shelter, these orangutans are killed and eaten by starving villagers. As the number of villagers increases, bush meat will serve as an additional food source for the sustenance of the village.

It is only in the areas that the local people have converted to Islam would refrain from consuming orangutan meat, due to their religions restrictions on meat eating.

Sale of skulls and body parts

Apart from being consumed as bush meat, orangutan body parts have also found their way into medicinal products or are made into tourists souvenirs. Skulls of the dead are often sold illegally throughout Kalimantan, with each skull fetching up to $70 in towns. In recent years, orangutan penises are also highly sought after in the underground markets.

Killed in retaliation

Source: Orangutan Outreach

As human settlement encroaches on the home of the orangutans, wild orangutans may be tempted to consume the fruits found in human gardens and farms. Other times, they may move into agricultural areas and destroy crops when they are unable to find the food they require in the forests. This creates conflict where orangutans are considered to be pests, and are killed in retaliation.

Also, villagers may view orangutans as a competitor for the various types of fruits that grow in the forests. As orangutans consume a large amount of these fruits on a daily basis, killing them would mean that the villagers will be able to enter the forests and obtain these fruits for themselves instead of sharing them.

Trophy hunting

For some individuals, orangutan hunting may take place for the sheer entertainment of it. There are people all across the world that will go to remote locations to be able to legally hunt for orangutans. To them, completing this trophy hunt is more important than the future of these primates. Many of these individuals are also unaware of the dwindling numbers of orangutans. Others who are aware choose to simply not care.