🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Population models often identify even 1 percent additional mortality as unsustainable for small great ape populations.
In extremely small populations, each adult individual carries disproportionate demographic weight. For the Tapanuli orangutan, with fewer than 800 individuals remaining, even isolated incidents of illegal killing can alter long-term survival projections. Population viability models demonstrate that sustained low-level mortality can exceed replacement rates. Orangutans reproduce slowly, so lost adults are not quickly replaced. The removal of breeding females is especially damaging. In fragmented landscapes, mortality risks can be higher due to human access. Each loss reverberates through a limited gene pool. The species operates on minimal demographic margin.
💥 Impact (click to read)
The numbers are unforgiving: losing fewer than ten adults in a year can represent over one percent of the global population. In demographic modeling, that difference can separate stability from decline. Unlike widespread species, there is no distant population to compensate. Each individual is statistically significant. The concept of replaceability barely applies.
Preventing illegal killing is therefore not only ethical but mathematically essential. Conservation enforcement and community engagement directly influence extinction probability. In a species this rare, every life holds evolutionary history millions of years deep. The Tapanuli orangutan demonstrates how small actions can shift global biodiversity outcomes. Extinction risk can hinge on single digits.
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