I was watching a documentary about the orangutans of Borneo, and learned that this species of great ape is endangered, because of the deforestation going on. Would a solution be to transplant them to the Amazon jungle? This would offer them a greater range, and the conditions in the Amazon jungle would be very close to their natural habitat in Borneo. Is this a good idea? I hardly think that a few thousand orangs in Brazil could cause any problems-so why hasn’t it been tried? And, could we have camels in Arizona? :smack:
Don’t know about your main question, but you’ve obviously never heard of the U.S. Camel Corps.
All those camels are gone now, according to the link – but there are still lots of feral camels thriving in the Australian bush. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=366812
Regarding the OP, orangutans probably could survive in the Amazon, but no responsible conservationist is going to deliberately introduce a new species to an environment where it’s not native, and where the indigenous species are not prepared to compete with it. That’s how we wound up with kudzu and water hyacinths and Brazilian pepper trees in the Southeastern U.S.
And just who is going to teach these orangs what is edible in the Neotropical rainforest?
I can see a few problems.
The first is the issue of predators. In their natural habitat Orangs only have to deal with tigers, that don’t hunt in trees much, and clouded leopards which are fairly small animals of around 20kg. In Brazil they will be coping with Jaguars that weigh around 100kg and routinely hunt off the ground. I have my doubts that a solitary ape could deal with such a predator. It’s hypothesises that the reasons why Orangs are the only arboreal great ape and the only solitary great ape is because they are the only species to live in an environment without true leopards. As such taking to the trees became a valid defence, and without any real need to protect themselves against predators a solitary lifestyle became advantageous. If that is the case then I suspect that they simply could not cope with jaguars.
The second is the issue of disease. How do you prevent a spread of diseases either form or to the orangs? What effect does an orang virus or parasite have on New World monkeys? Do you have the resources to test this and would it be more economical to simply buy orang reserves?
What is going to control the population? If we assume jaguar predation isn’t a problem then what is going to stop this species from reproducing uncontrolled? A few thousand may not be a problem, but what about a few hundred million? Do you intend to initiate culls, and are you sure this is practical?
What are the ecological effects? Do orangs favour the spread of weeds? Are they as efficient as native monkeys at disseminating forest trees? South American has no huge frugivorous primates. What would happen if orangs digested the seeds of fruits that are currently spread by birds or monkeys? Have you tested all species to control for this? This is probably the single biggest problem. The potential ecological effects could be devastating, and because forests turn over so slowly you may not even know about it for hundreds of years.
Generally speaking releasing exotic animals isn’t a good idea. It has it’s place where they can be fully monitored and easily eradicated, but I don’t think this fits the example.
That’s probably not a problem. From what I’ve seen of rehabilitating captured orangs you simply let them wander around while feeding them for a year or so. Then you gradually reduce the food you supply. These are clever animals, they work out what is edible pretty fast. Fruit is fruit after all and thier gut is apparently sufficient to deal with most poisons in small doses.
How about S. Florida? Could orangs make a go of it in the Everglades?
I can’t imagine it. It’s too seasonal and their are too few fruit trees aside from anything else. You really need another area of tropical rainforest without large predators. That pretty much restricts you to Oceania, and those regions already have enough problems with exotic vermin.
Although jaguars do climb well, almost all their hunting is on the ground. Their major prey is peccaries and capybaras, although they will take tapir, deer, and many other ground and water dwelling animals. They take very few primates, and I am sure they would not be a significant threat to orangs. The margay is the most arboreal of the New World cats, but it is far too small to be a threat to orangs.
The major predator that preys on primates in the New World is the Harpy Eagle. Although large enough, they would be no threat to an adult orang.
This is probably the most serious issue. Orangs may well not have resistance to diseases found in New World primates. Although you could quarantine them before introduction, this would not guarantee that they would not transfer Old World diseases to the Neotropics.
Given that orang density is usually 1-2.5 individuals per sq km, and that the entire Amazon forest totals less than 7 million sq km, they certainly aren’t going to reach populations in the hundreds of millions. And given the relatively low reproductive rate, they will take a heck of a long time to reach significant numbers even if conditions are ideal.
Orangs could most likely survive in Amazonia. They could potentially cause seed dispersal problems for some species of trees, but great ecological disturbance to the forest is unlikely, since there are many species of trees and many species of dispersers.
Although I wouldn’t foresee orangs becoming a great plague in Amazonia, like any introduced species they could potentially cause some problems. This is reason enough not to make the experiment.
In any case, it’s not like the Amazon would be a safe haven for them. The Amazon is being deforested too, though not quite as fast as southeast Asia, and poaching and capture for pets would be just as much as problem there as in Asia. The real solution has to be stronger protection of the places where they already live.
Well, they could hardly be any less effective at getting my shipments out on time than the monkeys that are there already.
sorry.
That was my first thought as well. There is no reason to believe that any rainforest environment would provide a long term solution, and the best thing to do is to try and keep what native habitat we have. If we can’t do that, a captive program is the only hope.
But transplanting them to some other wild location is likely to cause more problems than it would solve. All the great apes are endangered (except for us). If they are going to be saved, it’ll be up to those of those of us who live in the developed world. The people who inhabit the same geographic area as chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangs just don’t have the luxury to see things as we do.
A swamp, not a jungle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades Arboreal apes would not thrive there. Too much grass, too much standing/flowing water, not enough trees.
No, no, orangs tend to libraries, not bookstores.
How about Orangs in New Guinea? Thats pretty close, and no jaguars. I’d also like:
-Penguins in Alaska
-Polar bears in Antartica
-Elephants in Texas
-Tasmanian “devils” in Arizona
-Birds of Paradis in Florida 
Trouble is that arctic Alaska and northern Canada and Siberia all have land predators like polar bears and arctic foxes. Penguins on land are helpless against predators, Antarctica has none. The arctic equivalents of penguins, puffins and other alcids, are all able to fly, at least clumsily.
Polar bears get most of their food from seals they hunt on the ice. I’m not sure Antartica has the right seasonal balance of ice. Plus they’d exterminate the penguins.
We used to have various proboscidean species all over North America. There are probably plenty of places African Elephants could live comfortably in North America, along Texas-Mexico border most of all. Of course, there’s no room for them to run wild there. The area is too settled. Not enough habitat is left.
Tasmania is mostly temperate forest, not desert like mainland Australia. It would probably do better in the Pacific Northwest, or even England. Except there are too many dogs, foxes, bobcats, feral cats, racoons and other placental carnivores already there. Who knows if it could compete.
Kangaroos might do OK in the semidesert US though.
Not entirely accurate. Penguins usually only come ashore during the breeding season and there are varieties of penguins which nest on mainland Australia and Africa. Those continents are both swarming with land predators.
Moreover the Arctic equivalents of penguins today all fly because humans have exterminated the flightless varieties. The land predators like bears and foxes are not the problem. I suspect that if the right penguin species were introduced to arctic regions they could do quite well if people could be prevented from killing them.
Tasmanian Devils were common on mainland Australia right throughout the semi-arid regions until fairly recently. It appears that a combination of competition with dogs and human hunting spelled the end for them.
Whether they would compete in Europe or America is of course debatable, but the fact that they manage to compete perfectly well with dogs and cats in Tasmania and even manage to exlcude foxes and stoats suggests that they would manage quite well if human hunting could be prevented.
The feral emus are thriving theer so I can;t see why roos wouldn’t do equally well.