Plight of the Orang-utan in focus

In searching for the Orang Pendek, which some believe is a sub-species of Orang-utan, it's worth focusing on the plight of its iconic orange-furred cousin - and a new book out.

In the 1960s, it was believed that no more than about 4000 orang-utans remained in the wild. Consequently, IUCN - The World Conservation Union - declared the ape an endangered species, demanding its world-wide protection.

Nevertheless, the orang-utan today faces extinction because it is dependent on a rain-forest habitat that is rapidly being demolished due to human greed, and a growing human population.

Rijksen was among the first to make a detailed study of the ape in the wild, emerging as an authority on orang-utan conservation. In the late 1980s he became so alarmed by local rumours of the rapid decline of wild orang-utans that he initiated the study leading to this book. Meijaard conducted the ambitious, island-spanning surveys in Borneo and Sumatra to reveal the ape's whereabouts.

This is the story of their findings. It is the first comprehensive study of the ape's distribution and status based on a wealth of first-hand field data, and a frank, disturbing account of a mixture of good intentions, ignorance and greed, spelling doom for our Asian relative.

Nevertheless, the authors emphasise that the orang-utan can survive. A realistic plan to save the ape, and with it thousands of unique wild animals and plants, does exist. It is the authors' hope that Our Vanishing Relative, so urgent and eloquent in its description of the deadly net of problems descending over our helpless relative, will awaken attention and empathy in order to safeguard the future of the orang-utan.

Dr Mike Archer talks about his unusual resume

Professor Mike Archer is a palaeontologist, and professor of biological sciences at the University of NSW.

In his time he's been involved with a project to recover the DNA of the extinct thylacine, aka Tasmanian tiger, using a museum specimen.

And now he's working on another top secret project to bring back a different iconic extinct Australian animal...

Listen to the interview here.

Extinct Bornean Bay Cat 'caught' in the wild

The UK Telegraph is reporting that one of the world's most elusive wildcats - long believed extinct after it was last seen in 2003 - has been spotted in pictures from camera traps set up on Malaysian Borneo. 

The Bornean Bay Cat, similar in size to a large domestic cat, has a long tail and either a reddish or grey coat.

Three pictures showing two or three of the Bay Cats were taken in the northern highlands of Sarawak state in Borneo by researchers working for the forestry department.

The last pictures of the Bay Cat were taken in Lanjak Entimau wildlife sanctuary in southern Sarawak in 2003 and it had since been classified as extinct.

'Micro Kermit' discovered in Borneo

Meet the smallest frog on the block - a tiny pea-sized amphibian discovered recently in deepest, darkest Borneo.
The new discovery - the smallest found in Asia, Africa or Europe - has been named Microhyla nepenthicola after the plant on which it lives, according to taxonomy magazine Zootaxa.
The pea-sized frog had originally been mis-identified in museums, according to Dr Indraneil Das of the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He stated: 'Scientists presumably thought they were juveniles of other species, but it turns out they are adults of this newly-discovered micro species."
The micro-frogs were found on the edge of a road in the Kubah National Park.
Scientists managed to track down the tiny critter by their call - a series of 'harsh rasping notes' that began at sunset.
The discovery was part of a global effort undertaken by the Conservation International and International Union for Conservation of Nature's Amphibian Specialist Group to 'rediscover' 100 lost amphibians.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/from-the-land-of-the-lost-meet-micro-kermit-20100826-13tje.html