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Bridgeland-Stephens L, Thorpe SKS, Chappell J. Potential resilience treatments for orangutans ( Pongo spp.): Lessons from a scoping review of interventions in humans and other animals. Anim Welf 2023; 32:e77. [PMID: 38487448 PMCID: PMC10937215 DOI: 10.1017/awf.2023.97] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Wild orangutans (Pongo spp.) rescued from human-wildlife conflict must be adequately rehabilitated before being returned to the wild. It is essential that released orangutans are able to cope with stressful challenges such as food scarcity, navigating unfamiliar environments, and regaining independence from human support. Although practical skills are taught to orangutans in rehabilitation centres, post-release survival rates are low. Psychological resilience, or the ability to 'bounce back' from stress, may be a key missing piece of the puzzle. However, there is very little knowledge about species-appropriate interventions which could help captive orangutans increase resilience to stress. This scoping review summarises and critically analyses existing human and non-human animal resilience literature and provides suggestions for the development of interventions for orangutans in rehabilitation. Three scientific databases were searched in 2021 and 2023, resulting in 63 human studies and 266 non-human animal studies. The first section brings together human resilience interventions, identifying common themes and assessing the applicability of human interventions to orangutans in rehabilitation. The second section groups animal interventions into categories of direct stress, separation stress, environmental conditions, social stress, and exercise. In each category, interventions are critically analysed to evaluate their potential for orangutans in rehabilitation. The results show that mild and manageable forms of intervention have the greatest potential benefit with the least amount of risk. The study concludes by emphasising the need for further investigation and experimentation, to develop appropriate interventions and measure their effect on the post-release survival rate of orangutans.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jackie Chappell
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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Preuschoft S, Marshall AJ, Scott L, Badriyah SN, Purba MDT, Yuliani E, Corbi P, Yassir I, Wibawanto MA, Kalcher-Sommersguter E. The Development of Feeding Competence in Rehabilitant Orphaned Orangutans and How to Measure It. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:2111. [PMID: 37443909 DOI: 10.3390/ani13132111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2023] [Revised: 06/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
For critically endangered species, restorative conservation becomes increasingly important. Successful re-introduction of rescued wild orangutan orphans requires rehabilitation mimicking maternal rearing in the wild. Feeding competence-what to eat, where and when to find food-needs to be learned before re-introduction. We observed seven orphans (2-10 years old) for a period of 3 years during their rehabilitation at the Yayasan Jejak Pulang forest school. Of the 111 plant genera eaten by the orphans, 92 percent were known orangutan food plants. Five plant genera were eaten by all orphans in over 90 percent of the months within the observation period. The Fruit Availability Index (FAI) was used to predict which parts of a plant were consumed by the orphans. We found that the orphans ate primarily fruit when the FAI was high, but consumed more young leaves, cambium, and pith when FAI was low. Thus, the orphans exhibited food choices very similar to mature wild orangutans and appropriate to forest productivity. The orphans' acquisition of feeding competence was facilitated by their immersion into a natural forest environment in combination with possibilities for observational learning from conspecifics as well as caregivers modelling food processing and consumption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Signe Preuschoft
- Ape Protection Unit, Four Paws, 22767 Hamburg, Germany
- Yayasan Jejak Pulang, Samboja 75276, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
| | - Andrew J Marshall
- Department of Anthropology, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Program in the Environment, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Lorna Scott
- Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 37083 Göttingen, Germany
| | | | | | - Erma Yuliani
- Yayasan Jejak Pulang, Samboja 75276, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
| | - Paloma Corbi
- Ape Protection Unit, Four Paws, 22767 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Ishak Yassir
- BPSILHK, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Samboja 75276, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
| | - M Ari Wibawanto
- BKSDA Kalimantan Timur, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Samarinda 75243, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
| | - Elfriede Kalcher-Sommersguter
- Ape Protection Unit, Four Paws International, 1150 Vienna, Austria
- Institute of Biology, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
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Widyastuti K, Reuillon R, Chapron P, Abdussalam W, Nasir D, Harrison ME, Morrogh-Bernard H, Imron MA, Berger U. Assessing the impact of forest structure disturbances on the arboreal movement and energetics of orangutans—An agent-based modeling approach. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.983337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Agent-based models have been developed and widely employed to assess the impact of disturbances or conservation management on animal habitat use, population development, and viability. However, the direct impacts of canopy disturbance on the arboreal movement of individual primates have been less studied. Such impacts could shed light on the cascading effects of disturbances on animal health and fitness. Orangutans are an arboreal primate that commonly encounters habitat quality deterioration due to land-use changes and related disturbances such as forest fires. Forest disturbance may, therefore, create a complex stress scenario threatening orangutan populations. Due to forest disturbances, orangutans may adapt to employ more terrestrial, as opposed to arboreal, movements potentially prolonging the search for fruiting and nesting trees. In turn, this may lead to changes in daily activity patterns (i.e., time spent traveling, feeding, and resting) and available energy budget, potentially decreasing the orangutan's fitness. We developed the agent-based simulation model BORNEO (arBOReal aNimal movEment mOdel), which explicitly describes both orangutans' arboreal and terrestrial movement in a forest habitat, depending on distances between trees and canopy structures. Orangutans in the model perform activities with a motivation to balance energy intake and expenditure through locomotion. We tested the model using forest inventory data obtained in Sebangau National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. This allowed us to construct virtual forests with real characteristics including tree connectivity, thus creating the potential to expand the environmental settings for simulation experiments. In order to parameterize the energy related processes of the orangutans described in the model, we applied a computationally intensive evolutionary algorithm and evaluated the simulation results against observed behavioral patterns of orangutans. Both the simulated variability and proportion of activity budgets including feeding, resting, and traveling time for female and male orangutans confirmed the suitability of the model for its purpose. We used the calibrated model to compare the activity patterns and energy budgets of orangutans in both natural and disturbed forests . The results confirm field observations that orangutans in the disturbed forest are more likely to experience deficit energy balance due to traveling to the detriment of feeding time. Such imbalance is more pronounced in males than in females. The finding of a threshold of forest disturbances that affects a significant change in activity and energy budgets suggests potential threats to the orangutan population. Our study introduces the first agent-based model describing the arboreal movement of primates that can serve as a tool to investigate the direct impact of forest changes and disturbances on the behavior of species such as orangutans. Moreover, it demonstrates the suitability of high-performance computing to optimize the calibration of complex agent-based models describing animal behavior at a fine spatio-temporal scale (1-m and 1-s granularity).
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Sherman J, Unwin S, Travis DA, Oram F, Wich SA, Jaya RL, Voigt M, Santika T, Massingham E, Seaman DJI, Meijaard E, Ancrenaz M. Disease Risk and Conservation Implications of Orangutan Translocations. Front Vet Sci 2021; 8:749547. [PMID: 34869722 PMCID: PMC8633116 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.749547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Critically Endangered orangutans are translocated in several situations: reintroduced into historic range where no wild populations exist, released to reinforce existing wild populations, and wild-to-wild translocated to remove individuals from potentially risky situations. Translocated orangutans exposed to human diseases, including Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), pose risks to wild and previously released conspecifics. Wildlife disease risk experts recommended halting great ape translocations during the COVID-19 pandemic to minimize risk of disease transmission to wild populations. We collected data on orangutan releases and associated disease risk management in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, and developed a problem description for orangutan disease and conservation risks. We identified that at least 15 rehabilitated ex-captive and 27 wild captured orangutans were released during the study period. Identified disease risks included several wild-to-wild translocated orangutans in direct contact or proximity to humans without protective equipment, and formerly captive rehabilitated orangutans that have had long periods of contact and potential exposure to human diseases. While translocation practitioners typically employ mitigation measures to decrease disease transmission likelihood, these measures cannot eliminate all risk, and are not consistently applied. COVID-19 and other diseases of human origin can be transmitted to orangutans, which could have catastrophic impacts on wild orangutans, other susceptible fauna, and humans should disease transmission occur. We recommend stakeholders conduct a Disease Risk Analysis for orangutan translocation, and improve pathogen surveillance and mitigation measures to decrease the likelihood of potential outbreaks. We also suggest refocusing conservation efforts on alternatives to wild-to-wild translocation including mitigating human-orangutan interactions, enforcing laws and protecting orangutan habitats to conserve orangutans in situ.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Steve Unwin
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - Dominic A Travis
- One Health Division, Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States
| | - Felicity Oram
- Pongo Alliance-Kinabatangan, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Serge A Wich
- School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | | | - Maria Voigt
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
| | - Truly Santika
- Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham, United Kingdom
| | - Emily Massingham
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Dave J I Seaman
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
| | - Erik Meijaard
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom.,School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.,Borneo Futures, Bandar Seri Begawan, Darussalam, Brunei
| | - Marc Ancrenaz
- Pongo Alliance-Kinabatangan, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.,Borneo Futures, Bandar Seri Begawan, Darussalam, Brunei.,HUTAN, Sandakan, Malaysia
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