unite for the unique ape

The Last Day

2009-08-31T01:08:00.000-07:00

Today mark the last day of the BOH Programme: New Hope For Orang Utan 2009.

Special thanks to Husna, Sharifah Amalina, Nadiah, Diyana, Nithya, Thasmini, Amalina, Gaya Low, Soo Theng and Pn. Raja Shahariah for all the support (sorry if I missed out anyone). Also thanks to all St. Marian who have been showing your support and to all those from other schools as well.

We sincerely wished to thank all of you for the effort. No words can express how thankful we are but we greatly appreciate all your help.

In the last few weeks, we have been working pretty hard and holding on tight to our motto Unite To Aware Nation. Since the beginning of the programme, we never thought of winning or losing. What bear in our minds were just little hopes to rescue orangutans, to create as much awareness as we could as students and to hopefully strengthen the bonds between us.

I think the event has been a real success because we seen what we never expect to see. There are indeed a lot of people who loves nature and loves orangutans. We might not be able to make huge differences yet but we succeed in creating some awareness. Nevertheless, bonds between friends, classmates and schoolmates were strengthen.

In a nutshell, I guess we will never be regret to have made this choice to join the programme. However, let’s not let today that mark the last day of the programme mark the last day of our love for orangutans. Let’s continue our little effort like spreading the message of awareness around and reduce the usage of palm oil products.

Signing off,

Suet Yan.

pet?????one of the threat....

2009-08-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

As you are reading the title today,i'm sure that you can't believe there are people that will actually buy orang utan as a pet.Well,so do i!Wild orangutan numbers are affected by the illegal pet trade - particularly the baby. For every baby that makes it to the backstreet markets of Bangkok or Taiwan another two have perished.Most infants do not survive the harsh journey to market in Jakarta, Bali or other international locations due to poor care, disease, injury, and psychological trauma. For every orphan that reaches market, it is estimated some 6-8 orangutans died as a consequence of the inhumane means of capture, transport, and care.This seriously sadden me.Human can be too scary and mean sometimes.Though infant orangutans are extremely cute, they make very bad pets. All wild animals quickly outgrow being dependent, cuddly infants and grow into dangerous and unmanageable, very strong adults, completely unsuitable as pets.Easier access to to the orang utan habitat also leads to increased hunting of orangutans for meat, babies, skulls or, more recently for orangutan penises.(eww.seriously!).For orang utans, the situation is further complicated by their comparatively slow reproduction and maturity rate.Reproduction is also affected by the too little food. When food supplies dwindle so too does the orangutan's reproduction rate. As a result their numbers decline possibly becoming too low for the orangutans to survive in the long term!Pause and think what we,human did to them!

credit:www.orangutanrepublik.org,www.orangutan.net,www.orangutans.com.au

the BIGGEST THREATS!

2009-08-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Today we are gonna talk about the threats to the red apes.I know what you are thinking.....most students will tell ."Aiyoh,logging loh.....so much people use sooo much paper ,no tree.....where the orang utans want to swing loh....that's why we have to recycle all the paper loh!But you are not quite right!Logging are one of the threats but not the BIGGEST!Palm oil plantation is supposely the threat that we have to be concern the most!First, orangutan's rainforests habitat are being cleared to make way for the palm plantations for the increased in demand of palm oil by us,HUMAN!And sadly is that Malaysia and Indonesia have become the world's largest producers of palm oil with plantations in Indonesia estimated to cover over 5 million in 2005. The increase in demand for the product is being driven by not only the food and cosmetic industry but more recently its usage as a biofuel.Estimates show that if something isn't done soon to stop the spread of oil palm plantations into the forests, orangutans will be extinct within ten years.Do we really want that to happen?.I am definitely don't want that to happen so here is some things that YOU can do!First,please check the ingredients,if it contains palm oil put it back.click here if you wanna know the list of palm oil free products.(say YAY to CADBURY!mmmm...i want to eat chocolate now!)

You can write letters to the government or the manufacturer or the retailers to demand change,there is a sample letter if you click here.and.. you can also put your fingertips in handy by participating Melbourne Zoo's "Don't Palm Us Off" campaign and add your name to the list of those asking for change in labelling requirements ,you can click here .You can also use this(palm oil) or this(biofuels) petition to initiate change in standards to require compulsory labelling of palm oil and cease imports of palm oil based biofuels.And lastly,i am sure you can do this;inform your friends and family about the issue!.bye everyone and selamat bersahur!

THINK AND ACT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

credit:www.orangutanrepublik.org,www.orangutans.com.au

my apologise....

2009-08-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

i know...i know ...i suppose to do post this yesterday but my internet was down the whole day.I'm really really sorry!Ok,now we gonna straight to the report.Unfortunately for this activity i don't have the picture of the event because the camera was M.I.A.So,i'll make it up to y'all with lots of cute pictures from the the video.The video is about a rehabilitation center for the red apes in Bukit Merah.We borrow this cd fom Pn.Raja Shahariah,our biology teacher(love her!)

Title:ORANG UTAN ISLAND A JOURNEY OF SURVIVAL

please ignore the sight of my keyboard..

The specialists there do scientific research in breeding,monitoring,training, nad rehabilitation program to increase the population of healthy orang utan species and to progressively introduce them once again to the natural rainforest habitat.There are also developement unit for ten months to one and a half years old red apes consists of unit 1 = climbing , unit 2= water source , unit 3= foraging area , unit 4 = nest building skills , unit 5= swinging.That is some of the content of the 18 minutes video.BTW,i totally forgot to wish all the Muslims Happy Fasting!My first day of fasting was easy and i hope it will be like that for the entire month(thinking about delicious food while you know that you cannot even taste it is a type of suffering..)Enough of that,now this is the pictures that i promised you ;)

this is a male red ape
a female one!
male+female=a happy family!
the orang utan is given milk by the specialists

the lady is teaching and helping the red ape in nest building

in intensive care by the specilaists

awww,soo cutee!
the injured orang utan is treated!
the red ape in a cradle!soo cutee!
time for some medicine!

New report new activity!!

2009-08-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

Gosh!can't my title be any lamer...i seriously don't have any idea!BTW,yes, i am going to do a report on our activities for the past two weeks.I know it has been a looong time since our last post but i can't get my hand on our picture that we took while doing the activity.The camera was with my dear friend,Amalina that kept forgetting to give it to me.Enough of my babbling,now we are gonna talk about the activity.We made badges so everyone can wear it and show support to the campaign.

We give it free to people and we also asked for donations so we can make improvised our campaign such as more badges,fliers for people.Everyone is so generous and supportive!We totally loved them!I want to say thank you to our super nice volunteers nadiah,sharifah amalina,nithya,thasmini for your support and thanks to amalina(different people,not sharifah amalina) that is so kind to lend your Cybershot to us so we can have crystal clear pictures in our blog even though sometimes you give me headache with your forgetfullness.But BIG THANKS to our supporter out there that always look out for our activities and join them.WE LOVE YOU!haha!I'm gonna make it short here so tomorrow i'm gonna talk about the second activity;video watching for students.please look out for it tomorrow!good night everybody!;)

on the right is our full of ideas volunteer,sharifah amalina that help us a lot!;)

this is some of our lovely not to mention cute supporters! ;)

In mission to unite to aware nation,

Nor Faizaah!

Think

2009-08-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

There are so many trees now
Why can’t the orangutan swing itself?
From tree to tree
From branches to branches
Must it stay in one?
Oh, I know why
Because of the human beings down there
Holding the axe
Guess you know what they do
But I think you have to think twice
Think beyond
Think out of the box
They are actually models
Posing with the axe
For advertisement
Since then why can’t people understand?
And let the orangutan swing
Let it feel, let it see, let it learn
Is it because there is another human being?
Holding a saw this time?
Don’t forget
Think twice; think beyond; think out of the box

By: Ching Soo Theng (ex-st.marian)

Signing off,
Suet Yan

Report on the 'SURPRISE"

2009-08-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

I'm still sleepy while i'm typing the words in my mind right now.i just hope tomorrow will be a holiday for me so i can sleep all day long!well,enough of the mumbling i'm gonna do a report for today activity that we did during recess time and assembly.We request Miss Goh Hai Bee,our beloved principal to sign the banner that we did!

And then,during recess we did the hand printing activity so the students can show support to the campaign.BTW,thanks for the compliment for our banner.I know the orang utan is cute ;)

.We absolutely loved your support and respond to us!Thanks so much and please keep it up,girls!I'm gonna post some of the pictures so please look out if you're in the picture ;)

!and we are going to do some movie-watching activity so please be alert to the announcement and we hope that more people will be volunteering with us for this campaign.Anyone interested please see us,ok?that's it for now,guys!million claps for y'all!

let's meet our friend.......part 2

2009-08-10T05:15:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of 'all about orang utan and their uniqueness.I hope all of you start liking and loving them!they are absolutely worth saving for our future generations!

BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL HABITS
Orangutans are shy, solitary animals that are active during the day (they are diurnal). They live alone in large territories. This is probably due to their eating habits; they need a large area in order to get enough food and too many orangutans in one area might lead to starvation.

The only long-lasting orangutan social group is the mother and offspring, who live together for about 7 years. When mating, the male and female orangutan stay together for only a few days.

Sleeping Platforms:
Each evening, orangutans construct a "nest" in the tree branches for the night in which they will curl up and sleep. These nests are made out of leaves and branches. Nests are shared by a mother and her nursing offspring. Sometimes, the orangutan will use a leaf as a "roof" to protect itself from the rain. Orangutans often nap in the afternoon after a morning spent obtaining food.

COMMUNICATION AND VOCALIZATION
Male orangutans are capable of very long, loud calls (called "long calls") that carry through forests for up to 0.6 mile (1 km). The "long call" is made up of a series of sounds followed by a bellow. These calls help the male claim his territory, call to females, and keep out intruding male orangutans. Males have a large throat sac that lets them make these loud calls.CLICK HERE TO HEAR IT!!!

LOCOMOTION
Orangutans usually move by swinging from one branch to another; this is called brachiating. Orangutans can also walk using their legs (but rarely do). Orangutans do not swim.

LIFE SPAN
Orangutans live about 50 years in captivity; their life span in the wild is only 30-45 years (like most animals, they live longer in captivity).

NATURAL ENEMIES
The animal that poses the biggest threat to the orangutan is man (who uses its habitat and sells young orangutans as pets).T-T

In their true habitat, male orangutans live alone and females live alone or with their infants.Baby orangutans cry when they’re hungry, whimper when they’re hurt and smile at their mothers(ahhh soo cute!).check out this cute family
Legend says that orangutans can speak but choose not to because they fear they would be forced to work if were they ever caught talking(wow!)
that's it!all of this are the proof that they are unique and cute(well,if you are not agree on the 'cute' part,look at all the pictures!!THEY ARE CUTE!)hahaha!;)
Tomorrow you will hear fom me,Faizah again about the surprise for tomorrow.Please give your support to us when we are doing the campaign tomorrow and maybe your face will be on this blog ;)(don't worry i'd already have my pass signed by Pn.Parimalah for the camera)So,hope to see y'all tomorrow!

let's meet our friend.......

2009-08-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

I know you guess it right!!!our 'friend' in the title is absolutely the orang utan!!!Today our topic is 'all about orang utan and why are they so unique and special!!!'this topic will be divided into 2 posts bcuz i'ts too long and wordy.anyway,please read it bcuz to love orang utan is to know them!

Orangutans are large apes that live in southeast Asia (on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra). These apes mostly live in trees (they are arboreal) and swing from branch to branch using their arms.

The word orangutan means "man of the forest" in the Malay language. Habitat destruction, poaching and predation have led to steep decline in the population of the animal.In times past, they would not kill them because they thought the orang utan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.

Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of other great apes(they are the onlY RED APE). Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra

ANATOMY
Orangutans have a large, bulky body, a thick neck, very long, strong arms, short, bowed legs, and no tail. Orangutans are about 2/3 the size of the gorilla.

Hair:
They are mostly covered with long reddish-brown hair.

The Head:
The orangutan has a large head with a prominent mouth area. Adult males have large cheek flaps (which get larger as the ape ages).

Senses:
Orangutans have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.

Hands and Feet:
Orangutan hands are very much like ours; they have four long fingers plus an opposable thumb. Their feet have four long toes plus an opposable big toe. Orangutans can grasp things with both their hands and their feet. The largest males have an arm span of about 7.5 feet (2.3 m).

SIZE
Orangutans are about 2/3 the size of the gorilla.

DIET
Orangutans are omnivores (they eat both plants and animals) but are mostly herbivorous (plants comprise most of their diet). They eat fruit (their favorite food), leaves, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, and flowers. They also eat insects and small animals (like birds and small mammals).

Orangutans don't even have to leave their tree branches to drink, they drink water that has collected in the holes between tree branches.

INTELLIGENCE AND LANGUAGE
Orangutans are very intelligent. They have been known to use found objects as tools; for example, they use leaves as umbrellas to keep the rain from getting them wet. They also use leaves as cups to help them drink water. When it rains or the sun is hot an orangutan will hold a leafy branch or two over its head to protect itself from getting wet or overheated.Mosquitoes bother orangutans just like they do humans and they will use branches like fly swatters to swish them away.

surprise for MONDAY

2009-08-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

hey guys and girls!sorry for the late post.this is Faizah here!!i came home a bit late today b'cuz we have to finish the preparation and things for monday.I'm so excited!i'll post some pictures for y'all(hint to what are we are going to do on monday)We hope you will give us great great great support!We have been cracking out our head for awesome ideas and this is actually quite a good one and i really hope that it will work out well!so please give your support ok?and a million thanks to nadia and nithya!u guys are awesome!nithya really help us a lot,giving us ideas and planning for activities.and Nadia,oh boy she is a great artist.She is a truly life saver!So anyone of you out there that really want to be part of this team as volunteer please don’t be shy and meet us at 4sc2 and call for either me,Nor Faizaah or Chow Suet Yan or Suganti.Or maybe you can go to Harshini’s class 4sc3.Your contribution,ideas and support are greatly appreciated!we don’t care if you are form1,senior or junior!the more the merrier.So,lets have a great experience together and at the same time learning to appreciate our nature!so this is the pictures ;)

working hard to get it finished!(=

this is nadia.our great artist!

it does look that we are the pro in art but that is not actually the truth!;)

New Hope For Orang Utan 2009

2009-08-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

The CH-9 Media Sdn. Bhd. is organizing a BOH Programme: New Hope For Orang Utan 2009. In conjunction with this programme, we had formed a group of four with our slogan – Unite for the Unique. The team members consist of Chow Suet Yan, Suganti, Nor Faizaah and Harshini from SMK. St. Mary.

Our mission: Unite To Aware Nation

Are you aware that every single time when your school bell rang, somewhere in the deep rainforests, at least ONE orang utan had just died? The population of these intelligent mammalian is decreasing at a rate of 1000-2000 a year. What was the cause to their innocent death? It was due to their one and only deadly threat – human. Nevertheless, only human can save them. So let us unite and work together now to rescue these innocent creatures which are in agony.

CAN YOU BEAR WATCHING THEM GO EXTINCT?

The orangutans are two species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and are the largest living arboreal animal. According to research psychologist Robert Deaner and his colleagues, orangutans are the world’s most intelligent animal other than humans, with higher learning and problem solving ability than chimpanzees, which previously considered to have greater abilities. Do you know that orangutans have 97% of human’s DNA? A study of orangutans by Carel van Schaik, a Dutch primatologist at Duke University, found them capable of tasks well beyond chimpanzees’ abilities – such as using leaves to make rain hats and leak-proof roofs over their sleeping nests. He also found that in some food-rich areas, the creatures had developed a complex culture in which adults would teach youngsters how to make tools and find food.

THEY NO LONGER HAVE A PROPER HOME...

Do we really want these precious, adorable creatures to go extinct? If your answer is no, come and join us in creating awareness to protect the orangutans! Say yes to our slogan and kindly leave a comment in the chat box or link us to show your support!

SAY YES!