Orangutans Are Dangerous

Another Malaysian minister tried her hand at comedy – although as far as I can tell, nobody were laughing. 

In defence of the Malaysian palm oil industry, plantation industries and commodities minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (right) made the incredible claim on January 05, 2022 that planters were not harming orangutans.

Bt that the apes were the ones which were more likely to kill humans!

She added that the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) did not simply kill orangutans (right), tigers and lions, and had a policy of “making the animals faint” before taking them to the zoo. 

Obviously, she doesn't know that orangutans don't attack humans. There have been little to no cases when an orangutan attacked a human. Orangutans may be large and robust, but they don't use their strength for aggression. In fact, they are generally considered docile. 

And lions (left) are not found in the wild in Malaysia, by the way! 

Anyway, an excerpt of her speech is already circulating on social media and is currently trending on Twitter. 

However, Zuraida said on Thursday that her “orangutan will kill you” remark was taken out of context. She said the video clip had been edited in a way to cast aspersions on her. 

According to Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Malaysia (Ecomy) president Andrew Sebastian, Zuraida had failed to acknowledge the well-documented drop in the orangutan population. 

He said: “From 1973, it was estimated that there were 288,500 orangutans in Borneo and by 2025, it is estimated to drop to 47,000 only. And that’s why in 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the orangutan as critically endangered”. 

He also pointed out a misstatement: Perhilitan do not operate in Sabah and Sarawak, where orangutans are found. 

In Sabah, a local wildlife authority under Sabah's state Ministry for Tourism Development, Environment, Science and Technology, i.e. Sabah Wildlife Department and in Sarawak, a statutory body of the Sarawak Government, Sarawak Forestry Corporation, are the custodians of the wildlife there. 

These misrepresentations from Zuraida will not help the palm oil industry in their efforts to fight criticisms that are being levelled against them for their deleterious effects on the primates.

Yesterday, first half goals from Georgios Giakoumakis and Liel Abada earned Celtic a place in the Scottish Cup fifth-round. 

But only after a late fright against League 1 side Alloa Athletic when the part-timers scored in the seventy-eighth minute to give them hope. Celtic thankfully saw the game out comfortably.  

And did you know that the Scottish Cup is the home of the oldest Association Football trophy in the world and recognized as such by Guinness World Records? Not to mention that it is the second competition formed in the history of association football – the first tournament was held in 1873–74. 

FYI, the oldest national football competition in the world is the FA Cup, first played during the 1871–72 season.