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Bangkok: Endangered orangutans could become the first great ape to become extinct unless urgent action is taken to protect the species from human encroachment in Southeast Asia, a new study has shown.
The population of orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia has declined sharply since 2004, mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, said Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in the US state of Iowa, on Saturday.
A recent survey by Wich and his 15 colleagues found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped nearly 14 per cent since 2004 to 6,600.
No giant apes were found in parts of Aceh province.
The study - which appears in the Oryx journal - discovered the population on Malaysia's Borneo island fell by 10 per cent to 49,600 apes.
"It's disappointing that there are still declines even though there have been quite a lot of conservation efforts over the past 30 years," Wich said.
The orangutan losses on Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate," and researchers described the situation on Sumatra as a "rapid decline."
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