Orang- utan numbers get a boost

According to today’s Telegraph orang-utan numbers have been boosted after a team surveying forests nestled between jagged, limestone cliffs in eastern Borneo island counted over 200 orang-utan nests.

This , indicates a "substantial" number of the animals, accordgin to Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the US-based The Nature Conservancy."We can't say for sure how many," he said, but even the most cautious estimate would indicate "several hundred at least, maybe 1,000 or 2,000 even".

There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 orang-utans left in the wild, 90 per cent of them in Indonesia and the rest in neighbouring Malaysia. The countries are the world's top producers of palm oil and rainforests have been clear-cut and burned at alarming rates to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.

The steep topography, poor soil and general inaccessibility of the mountains appear to have shielded the area from development, at least for now, said Meijaard. Its trees include those highly sought after for commercial timber.

Conservationists say the most immediate next step will be working with local authorities to protect the area and others that fall outside of national parks. A previously undiscovered population of several hundred also was found recently on Sumatra island, home to around 7,000.

A whistling Orangutan and speech therapy parrots

The Torygraph has been a useful source of blog fodder for An Beal Bocht recently. This trend seems set to continue with news from the National Zoo in Washington that Bonnie, a 32 year old Orangutan, has taught herself to whistle.

Bonnie’s keeper, Erin Stromberg, said: “I think what makes it significant is that you can train apes to whistle, but no one trained her to do it. She decided to do it on her own,"

The zoo said that Bonnie taught herself by listening zoo keepers who whistle while they work. She is also thought to have taught another orangutan called Indah to whistle too.

Mr Stromberg helped researchers study her behaviour for a paper published in Primates by whistling basic patterns to see whether Bonnie could copy them. They found that her behaviour disproves the argument that orangutans have no control over their vocalisations and their sounds are purely involuntary responses to stimuli such as predators.

Here is Bonnie in action. She may not be a virtuoso whistler but she’s already better than me!



Meanwhile there is a recent report on the amazing recovery of American firefighter Brian Wilson, who was seriously injured in a traffic accident and never expected to be able to speak beyond the level of a two year old.

Mr Wilson claims that the chatter of pet parrots helped his regain the power of speech. "Two birds taught me to talk again," he said. "I had such a bad head injury I was never supposed to talk any more than a two-year-old." But two of the birds that he had had as pets since he was a child "just kept talking to me and talking to me. Then all of a sudden, a word popped out, then two, then more."

To show his gratitude Mr Wilson has devoted his life to feathered pets whose owners are no longer able or want to keep them. He now shares his home with about 80 brightly plumed exotic birds, from snow-white cockatoos to scarlet or blue and green macaws to African grey parrots. "You wonder why I rescue birds? They helped me to talk again, so now I take care of them," he said.

No witty (or otherwise) comment here

First word, three syllables: first syllable is...

It would appear that Orang-utans would be hits at parlour games, well charades anyway. A study indicates that their communication resembles that game.

Researchers from St Andrews University have shown that Orang-utans intentionally modify or repeat their signals to get their messages across. The study involved six orang-utans living in two zoos. Richard Byrne, and an author of the study, said: “When we communicate, we routinely use our knowledge of what our audience knows. We wanted to find out whether the great apes do the same thing."

Researchers set up a situation where six captive orang-utans were presented with a keeper who had treats, such as bananas, and blander food, such as leeks or celery. The animals gestured to attract the keeper's attention so the tasty treat would be passed to them. Once the orang-utans had done this, the keepers did one of three things: they either handed them the treat, handed them the bland food or handed them half the treat. The scientists then recorded their reactions.

"When the keeper gave the orangutan the really nice food, that was the end of it," explained Professor Byrne. "But when the keeper pretended to fail to understand the original gesture and gave the wrong food, the orangutans stopped using the gestures they had used before and started using some different gestures. When the keeper half understood and gave the orangutan part of the treat, they started to repeat the same gestures that they had used, but they would repeat them even more enthusiastically."

Given that orangutans are the most distantly related great ape to humans, the scientists believe that all great apes would prove to have this skill. More evidence that we are just shaved apes?

In my case a bit less shaved than others...