Destination Endangered Species

How do you spend your summers? Lazing on the couch? Visiting family? Sun-soaked days at the pool? A family trip?

Russell Laman spent his childhood summers on rather unconventional family vacations. After the school bell sounded for the last time in June, his family boarded a flight to the island of Borneo in Asia. Russell’s travel plan: Forty hours on a plane across the Pacific Ocean, a bumpy van ride to the edge of Gunung Palung National Park, and a boat ride upriver to a research camp where his parents study orangutans. Russell made his first family trip when he was less than one year old.

Russell’s mother is a biological anthropologist, and his father is a photographer for National Geographic. Russell, now 20 years old, joined the family business of researching orangutans. Flying drones into the treetops, Russell captures remote footage of orangutans nesting.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), orangutans on the island of Borneo are critically endangered with less than 105,000 left. Critically endangered is a title given to species with a high risk of extinction. In this article, we will take our own trip to visit a few critically endangered species, starting with one of Russell’s favorites, the Borneo Orangutans.

STOP #1: BORNEO ORANGUTANS

High in the treetops of the Borneo rainforest lives the shaggy, red-haired Borneo orangutans. In Malay, a native language of Southeast Asia, orangutan means “person of the forest” which is fitting given that orangutans share almost 97% of the same DNA as humans.

These tree-dwelling mammals swing from branch to branch with powerful arms that span 7 feet from fingertip to fingertip. That’s almost twice the arm span of a ten-year-old. They mostly eat fruit but also snack on leaves, nuts, bark, and insects. As they eat, orangutans spread seeds and support the rainforest ecosystem by planting the next generation of trees.

Over the last fifty years, the chainsaw and tractor reshaped Borneo’s rainforests. With the buzz of a chainsaw, companies leveled the rainforest to make space for logging and mining. Farmers cleared trees, and tractors plowed millions of acres to plant palm oil plantations. Deforestation at breakneck speed has destroyed over half of the orangutans’ rainforest home, according to PBS. With their homes and food supply in ruins, orangutans sometimes raid plantations for fruit, leaves, and nuts. Sadly, farmers poison or shoot orangutans that they think pose a threat to their crops.

Hunting and the exotic pet trade also endanger orangutans. Each year, hunters kill thousands of orangutans and sell their meat in Asian markets. In addition, an estimated 200 to 500 young orangutans are taken from their treetop homes and sold illegally as pets. Female orangutans only have babies every three to five years, so it takes years to replace disappearing orangutans. Scientists worry that if the decline in orangutans continues, they could be close to extinction by 2050.

STOP #2: AFRICAN FOREST ELEPHANT

Buckle up for a trip west to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, one of the last strongholds of the African forest elephant. African forest elephants are one of the two kinds of elephants that live in Africa. Unlike the famous African savanna elephants — think about the kind seen in The Lion King, African forest elephants are smaller and live in the rainforests of central and western Africa.

African forest elephants live with their family in herds. They munch on leaves, grasses, seeds, and fruit. Like the Borneo orangutan, African forest elephants help spread seeds and replant trees. Because of their tree-planting skills, scientists call them “mega gardeners of the forest.” African forest elephants also serve as the rainforest’s trashmen. They remove debris and fallen trees with their muscular trunks, helping the ecosystem by clearing paths for other animals.

Long ago, millions of elephants roamed the savannas and forests of Africa. But deforestation and poaching threaten elephants. According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), scientists estimate that the elephant population has dropped by 86% with less than 40,000 African forest elephants left in the wild. With humans removing trees for agriculture, roads, and towns, between 1979 and 2007, forest elephants have lost 67% of the land they used to roam. As a result, these mammoth mammals have less land and less food.

Like the savanna elephants, African forest elephants have long, ivory tusks that frame their wrinkled faces. In exchange for money, poachers shoot or poison elephants and then chop off their tusks to trade illegally. Over half of the poached ivory travels to China to be made into jewelry and other accessories. The United States is the second-biggest consumer of illegal ivory. Despite laws to protect elephants from illegal hunting, poaching has reached an all-time high with roughly 100 elephants killed each day for their tusks according to Wall Street Journal.

STOP #3: HAWKSBILL TURTLE

In the warm waters along the equator, meet the Hawksbill turtle. About three feet long, hawksbill turtles are named for their hawk-like, pointy beaks. Using their beaks, hawksbills reach into the cracks in coral reefs to pull out sponges — their favorite food. By eating fast-growing sponges, hawksbills prevent them from overtaking slow-growing coral reefs. Coral reefs are homes to fish, offer safe and sheltered nurseries for infant organisms, and protect coastlines from crashing waves. Thanks to the Hawksbill turtles, coral reefs can thrive.

Hawksbill turtles are well-known for their red, brown, and yellow shells. But, their beauty has a price. Over the last 150 years, nearly nine million hawksbills were killed for their shells according to National Geographic. The tortoiseshell is fashioned into jewelry and other decorations which are illegally traded around the world. In 1977, hawksbills gained international protection from poaching; however, many turtles are still illegally caught and killed for their striking shells.

In tropical oceans, fishermen catch fish with wide nets and long fishing lines with thousands of razor-sharp hooks. Bycatch is when fishermen accidentally catch a marine animal that they do not want. Attracted by the fishermens’ bait, hawksbills get caught in fishing nets and lines. Tangled in nets and hooks, hawksbills cannot reach the surface to breathe and drown or suffer serious injuries. Conservationists estimate that commercial fishing is 2.5 times larger than what the ocean ecosystem can sustain, reports WWF. With too many fishing boats working the water, too many turtles are caught and killed unintentionally.

Beyond poachers and bycatch, turtles face another threat: climate change. When it is time to lay eggs, a female hawksbill waddles onto a beach and digs a hole in the sand, filling it with over 100 turtle eggs. Two months later the baby turtles hatch and scuttle back to the water to start their oceanic life. But rising water levels and stronger storms due to climate change erode beaches where hawksbills nest. Winds, rains, and crashing waves wash away nests of baby turtles hidden in the sand before they can even hatch. Warmer temperatures have another unexpected impact on hawksbills. The temperature of beach sand determines the gender of the baby turtle. Warmer beaches mean more female turtles are born. In 2019, a team of scientists found that female baby turtles now outnumber males 116 to 1, according to The Washington Post.