Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Can Borneo’s orang-utans survive global warming?


Borneo’s orang-utans have been teetering on the brink for a long time, and studies show that up to 74 percent of the species’ habitat could be lost to climate change and other impacts.

But biologists taking a close look at habitat say there remote areas of habitat that could become refuges for the great apes.

Satellite images helped the Centre for International Forestry Research estimate areas of forest change expected in the future.

The researchers also mapped land unsuitable for oil palm agriculture, one of the major threats to orang-utans, and used this alongside information on orang-utan ecology and climate to identify environmentally stable habitats for the species this century.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Can Borneo’s orang-utans survive global warming?
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