KUCHING: The population of orang-utans, one of the world’s endangered species once found in abundance, has dropped to some 2,000 in Sarawak due logging activities and illegal hunting.

Sarawak Forest Department executive forester (national parks and wildlife division) Victor Luna Amin said the orang-utans, which were seen throughout southern Sarawak in the 1950s, were now found only in the Batang Ai National Park and the Lanjak-Entimau biodiversity conservation area in Sri Aman Division.

Similarly, he said, the population of the proboscis monkeys, another endangered species, had declined to less than 1,000.

“The orang-utans and proboscis monkeys are the icons of Sarawak and eco-tourism assets which should be protected,’’ he said at a workshop on “Enhancing Professionalism for Tourist Guides” at the Holiday Inn.

He also had earlier presented a paper on “National Parks as Natural Heritage” at the two-day workshop jointly organised by the state Tourism Ministry and Sarawak Development Institute.

Amin said flying foxes were also one of the wildlife under threat as they were rarely seen nowadays compared with the thousands of them which flew overhead nightly in the 1970s.

He said illegal hunting had significantly reduced the state’s wildlife population.

“In the old days, hunters used spears and darts but now they use shotguns.

“Eighty-eight per cent of the animals killed were shot. Over three million cartridges are used each year,’’ he said.

Amin said very little wildlife meat was sold in towns in the 1980s but this had shot up to at least 1,000 tonnes a year in 1996.

He said a one-year study in 1987 by Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Elizabeth Benetta at a logging camp in Sarawak revealed that 1,149 animals were killed and 29 tonnes of wildlife meat produced.

He said the state government’s ban imposed on the sale of wildlife meat had helped to improve the situation and such meat was no longer sold at wet markets.

Amin said the department and a Miri-based firm were continuing to study how to get the cooperation of loggers to reduce the hunting of wildlife.

He said it was important that national parks be sustainably managed for eco-tourism.