10:54, 23 December 2009 | GMT +5
Twenty years left to prevent orangutan from extinction
KUALA LUMPUR. December 23. KAZINFORM The orangutan will become extinct if no action is taken to protect its jungle habitat in the next two decades, a Malaysian conservationist has warned; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

There are some 60,000 orangutan still living in the wild in Malaysia and Indonesia but deforestation and the expansion of palm plantations have taken a heavy toll, the Star newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing Tsubouchi Toshinori from the Borneo Conservation Trust.
The orangutan habitat is fragmented and isolated by plantations, which makes them unable to migrate and find mates to produce babies, Tsubouchi said.
He noted that although studies predicted that the orangutan would disappear within 50 years if their habitat continued to vanish, action needed to be taken within the next two decades to stall that process; Kazinform cites Xinhua.
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