THE Sabah Wildlife Department has rubbished a report by foreign media, claiming that 6,100 orang utan were killed in the state between 1999 and 2015.

Its director, Augustine Tuuga, in a statement today, said the report was “baseless” as it referred to research, by three scientists based in the state, that did not have hard facts and evidence.

He said the findings, published in 2004 in the PLOS journal, estimated that the orang utan population in Sabah numbered 11,000, and at the time the study was carried out, 60% of the species in the state was believed to be living outside protected areas.

He said the state government had made serious efforts to boost the protection of orang utan, such as by declaring and gazetting bigger areas as protected habitat.

Augustine was commenting on a report that was based on the Current Biology journal, authored by Maria Voigt and co-authored, among others, by Dr Marc Ancrenaz of civil group Hutan, who is based in Sukau, Kinabatangan, and Dr Benoit Goossens, director of the Danau Girang Field Centre. – Bernama, February 18, 2018.