There occurred a population collapse in the Bornean orangutan. A three year genetic study by wildlife geneticists from Cardiff School of Biosciences has shown this. Since the late 19th Century, this decrease amounts to one hundred fold. And this period coincides with the arrival of colonial powers on the island of Borneo and the following acceleration of timber extraction. As opposed to when humans first appeared in the region, the research is claimed to be among the first to link species decline with colonial deforestation.
orangutans
Dr Benoît Goossens, Cardiff School of Biosciences said, "this is the first time that an alarming and recent human related decline of a great ape population has been demonstrated using genetic data,... the research used a new, innovative analysis that meant we could distinguish between population decline that happened thousands of years ago and much more recently".
Via: Science Daily
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