The Orang-utan and Rhinoceros in North Sumatra

Abstract

Oliver Milton made a two-month survey of the status of the orang-utan and the Sumatran rhinoceros in North Sumatra, one of the few remaining areas in which these persecuted animals are to be found. He concluded that there were not more than 1,500 orang-utans and possibly as few as 800, and perhaps twenty Sumatran rhinoceros, all mainly, if not entirely, in the Loser Reserve. Indiscriminate smuggling by poachers with firearms he found to be the main threat to both animals. The survey, which was the first phase of a one-year project to study the status of the two animals in Indonesia, was sponsored by the Survival Service Commission of IUCN, with a generous grant from the World Wildlife Fund, and made with the permission of the Indonesian Government and the help of the local government officers.