Life Solved
Understanding The World’s Most Endangered Great Ape
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Episode notes
The University of Portsmouth’s Dr Marina Davila Ross tells us about her work studying communication in Great Apes.
In this episode of Life Solved, we hear the call of Pongo Tapanuliensis, otherwise known as the Tapanuli Orang-utan, the third and most rare species of orang-utan.
Marina reveals how her recordings of this 800-strong colony in Sumatra helped classify it as a whole new species and raised many more questions for science.
She tells us how she originally gathered data on orang-utan long calls using a Sony Walkman and how she is able to analyse vocalisations to identify different species.
The classification of this distinct third species in 2017 has also been vital for its conservation. The mountainous, rugged habitat of the Tapanuli had been primed for development, but now those plans are on hold in a bid to conserve this population.
POINTS OF INTEREST & FURTHER READING
Dr Marina Davila-Ross
https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our-staff/marina-davila-ross
Long call distribution in wild orang-utans
https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/219?lang=en
Listen to orang-utan sounds and calls
https://wildambience.com/wildlife-sounds/orangutan/
About the orang-utan Long Call
https://zooatlanta.org/the-amazing-orangutan-long-call/
A new species is classified
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