New! Pukaca Orangutan Paper Toy
Picture: Pukaca
Developed in partnership with Pukaca with purpose of teaching children the importance of Borneos Rainforest and the Borneo-Orangutans. We celebrate this year's Earth Day by welcoming the new Pukaca Orangutans Paper Toy!
To save the orangutan from extinction, Pukaca is donating 0.50 Rappen of its income derived from this Orangutan Paper Toy to Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Switzerland.
Order a Paper Toy at Pukaca shop >
Orangutans is our closest living relative and a highly intelligent, sentient being
The orangutan is Asia’s only Great Ape and native to the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. It shares 97% of its DNA with humans. Thus, the orangutan is our closest living relative and a highly intelligent, sentient being. Only around 70,000 Bornean Orangutans and 15,000 Sumatran Orangutans remain in the wild.
Up to 150,000 disappeared within the last 16 years. This rapid and alarming decline in wild populations is mostly due to the destruction of their habitat by logging companies, plantation owners or fires as well as the flourishing and illegal pet trade. Today, the orangutan is one of the most critically endangered species!
For 15 years, BOS Switzerland has aimed to protect orangutans and their habitat—the rainforest of Indonesia. For that purpose, BOS Switzerland supports the programs of BOS Foundation in Borneo, Indonesia. BOS is running the largest primate rescue and rehabilitation program in the world.
Picture: Pukaca
Picture: Pukaca
Since 1991, BOS has rescued more than 3000 orangutans and, since 2012, released 386 orangutans back into the wild after up to nine years of rehabilitation. Furthermore, BOS is managing and protecting huge areas of rainforest. Together with volunteers, BOS reforests destroyed areas and engages in community development to generate alternative and sustainable sources of income, as well as to improve local health care and environmental education.
Orangutans are a so-called umbrella species. By protecting orangutans in their natural habitat, a whole plethora of other flora and fauna depending on the orangutan are also protected. Protecting their habitat is as important to humans as it is to wildlife.
Orangutan Facts
Did you know that…
- orangutans are the largest tree-living mammal in the world?
- of all Great Apes, orangutans are the only ones who are primarily arboreal –
- spending about 90 percent of their time in the tree-tops? They are the best climbers in the world!
- orangutans build sleeping nests every night?
And did you know that…
- orangutans are the gardeners of the forest? They spread seeds and, by travelling through the forest, they remove rotten branches (breaking the canopy of the forest to allow the sunlight to come through). Thus, the rainforest needs the orangutans as much as the orangutans need the rain forest.
- orangutans have knowledge about the medicinal effect of plants. They use plants to cure stomach ache or to heal injuries.
- in the space of one year, an adolescent male orangutan can travel a distance of more than 30 km? Orangutans need large areas to roam!
- in the entire animal world orangutans have the closest mother-child-relationship?
Also, did you know that…
- The mothers breastfeed their babies up to 8 years and teach them everything they need to survive in the wild.
orangutans only give birth every 8 years? - the majority of orangutans (90%) are situated in Indonesia, while the remaining 10% can be found in Malaysia?
- there are three co-generic species: the Bornean Orangutan, the Sumatran Orangutan, and the newly discovered Tapanuli Orangutan?