murmurous gilgamesh: It?s the hair: famous red-heads team up for orang-utans

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

It?s the hair: famous red-heads team up for orang-utans

Tiffany O?Callaghan, CultureLab editor

(Image: Kalpesh Lathigra 2012/DMBMEDIA)

We have a lot in common with orang-utans. Not only do we share more than 96 per cent of our DNA with them, it turns out we are also similarly fascinated by gadgets.

Now, some famous folks who have locks in common with these orange apes are banding together to raise funds to protect them from extinction. From outspoken comedian Tim Minchin, to actress Nicole Kidman and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, the Jungle VIP Auction has a line-up of well-known redheads, selling everything from t-shirts declaring ?96.4% Orangutan? to autographed posters and evening gowns. Hosted on eBay beginning 1 March, members of the public are also invited to contribute items to the auction.

Run by the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), the auction will raise money to help protect the dwindling Sumatran orang-utan (Pongo abelii) population, which has been devastated by illegal hunting and deforestation. As a report last year compiled by the United Nations Environment Program highlights, orang-utans are now confined to a smattering of locations on the island of Borneo, and a small area in the north-west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Yet, more than 11,000 years ago, the great orange apes could be found across much broader terrain, as far north as southern China, and as far south as the island of Java. In the past century, orang-utan populations have fallen by close to 92 per cent. According to the SOS, today there are fewer than 7,000 left in the wild - though even in such small numbers, they do have an encouragingly diverse genetic breakdown.

Wondering why orangutans are orange ? or if their name has anything to do with their colour? Though it may seem that bright ginger fur would be problematic for blending in out in the wild, it turns out that in the peat-swamp forests where the apes live, the water tends to be a muddy orange colour. As Mark Harrison of the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project told The Last Word, ?sunlight reflected off this water can give the forest an orange cast, making orangutans surprisingly hard to see in dappled light.? The name orang-utan, alas, has nothing to do with the English word orange. According to Cambridge linguist David Willis, orang-utan comes from Malay and means ?person of the forest?.

The Jungle VIP auction run by the Sumatran Orangutan Society will be open on eBay from 1 - 11 March. www.ebay.co.uk/JungleVIP