The Thinkers Of The Jungle

Periodically checking & tidying up old papers & Blogs nearly always turn up something that makes me wonder how I could have forgotten all about them, and not put them in classified 'To keep' files. The Review below is one I wrote in 2009. Willie Smits was happy and content working as forest microbiologist in Borneo when, passing through the market Balikpapan one day, someone put right in front of him a little cage with a baby orangutan inside. "They were the saddest eyes in the world and I couldn't get them off my head", said one of the authors of the book 'The thinkers of the jungle', in which it tells of the work of their ONG Borneo Survival Orangutan Foundation (BOS) in the island of southeast Asia. That same afternoon in 1989, Smits returned to the market, by then closed. "I heard whining, choking and pitiful, coming from the rubbish bin" he said, "that baby orangutan I saw earlier on had been thrown into the bin." Uce, that baby, was the first orangutan this Dutch scientist saved. In the next 20 years 2,000 other orangutans followed. "They live constantly under threat," Smits said, numbering the problems: "the climatic change, the deforestation, fires provoked to cultivate palm oil, the human diseases and the hunters who want them for meat, and their babies for the skulls or bones to make into traditional medicine." Orangutans are the animals who most resemble humans, sharing 97,8% of our genetic patrimony, and their population in Borneo (some 30,000) decreases each year. "It's a genocide." he sentenced. "I had not wished to make a pretty brochure, but a book to open the eyes of the people. The books explain the culture of these very intelligent animals. They have learned to fish with a pole or rod, sharpen an axe, wash dishes, sweep the floor, and had learned to swim! They know what plants to take when in pain. I watched them and when once I had a bad migraine, I tried the same plant and it worked. Now all the staff in BOS take it too." The book contains many beautiful photos, but also included terrible images of abuse inflicted on them by humans. He thinks the tourist should read the book before visiting these countries. Each time they pay to have their pictures taken with these animals, each time they buy tickets to assist spectacles of simian apes boxing or performing tricks, they are participating in the slavery and torture of these animals." The BOS Foundation has built ecological lodgings with adequate maintenance for tourists in Samboja, right in the middle of the jungle (WWW.sambojalodge.com). They welcome tourists who wish to help and work towards their salvation. The objective is not to convert the animals into pets, nor to humanize them, but to give them a second opportunity so that they can return to the jungle to live a free, natural and peaceful life. Smits sees Uce every 2 years. She lives with Dodo and their 3 babies. When he found her, he showed her photos of their history. Uce would look intensely at them, caressed them, recognising herself and her friends and relatives. Then she would return the photos to Smits, and goes away happily back to her family and her jungle. The book was written by Willie Smits, Gerd Schuster, and Jay Ullal. Look at the photo! How the little baby wrapped himself round the leg of the carer for love and comfort! All these babies are orphans because their mothers had been killed or capture by people!!! Tags:Orangutan,Jungle,Borneo

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