The Ape Crusaders
By Sean Whyte
Many people will know the orangutan is an endangered species, but not necessarily realise that this endearing and familiar animal will possibly become the first of the remaining four great apes to become extinct in our lifetime. A rapidly growing number of people are now becoming aware of the Ape Crusaders and the extraordinary lengths to which they go to save orangutans.
Exclusively because of logging, in recent years largely driven by oil palm production, orangutan numbers are falling so fast it is estimated they will be wiped out within twenty years. Some orangutans may remain in Malaysia, but across the border in Indonesia there seems little hope. What hope there is increasingly depends on a small, very pro-active group: The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP).
In fewer than four years COP’s Ape Crusader team has saved thousands of hectares of forest and rescued dozens of orangutans over an area close to 500,000 square kms. Their 4 x 4 drive Ape Crusader truck donated by British charity Orangutan Appeal UK is in constant use, day and night, 365 days a year, taking the COP Rapid Response Team to far away locations where orangutans need rescuing from forests being logged. The work of COP is always difficult and frequently dangerous.
The Ape Crusaders is a pioneering book based on first-hand experience. It takes the reader on a tumultuous photographic journey throughout Borneo showing for the first time the highs and lows of frontline orangutan conservation in action. Lavishly illustrated with some 175 photos by both the author and the Centre for Orangutan Protection.
The Author: Acknowledged
as one of the world’s leading campaigners on behalf of orangutan
protection, Sean Whyte has visited Indonesia some 20 times, gaining an
unparalleled knowledge of the broad spectrum of issues faced by those
who devote their lives to the conservation of this most enigmatic yet
increasingly endangered species. Putting his experience to use he has
published reports on orangutans, is a prolific contributor to Indonesian
as well as Malaysian newspaper reports and campaigns relentlessly to
save this highly endangered ‘Man of the Forest’.
