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serves habitat. Better growing techniques help farmers in tropical
countries grow crops without having to destroy forests. Advanced
planning enables road building and other types of development
to proceed without destroying habitat. Although all habitat can-
not be saved, the efforts of scientists are helping conserve habitat
throughout the world.
Exploring from Above
In recent years scientists have used unmanned aerial vehicles,
more commonly known as drones, to study wildlife. Among the
first to do this were conservation scientists Lian Pin Koh and Serge
Wich, who are experts on orangutans. These great apes are the
largest tree-dwelling, or arboreal, animals in
the world. They live in the thick, dense rain
forests of the Southeast Asian islands of Bor-
neo and Sumatra. Orangutans spend near-
ly all their time swinging from tree to tree in
the jungle and building nests in the treetops
where they sleep. Scientific research about
orangutans is critical because the creatures
are threatened with extinction. Legal and il-
legal destruction of forests have devastated
orangutan habitats. An estimated 80 percent
of the world’s orangutan population has disappeared over the
past seventy-five years, and if drastic steps are not taken, these
apes may become extinct.
Koh and Wich have studied orangutans for many years and
have spent a great deal of time in Sumatra. A primary focus of
their research is to find out what is happening to the apes’ habi-
tats. If illegal logging is the problem, and they are able to find
proof of that, they can alert the authorities. Their research can
be challenging because orangutans build their nests so high in
the trees—up to 65 feet (20 m) off the ground. To overcome this
difficulty, the two scientists devised a plan in 2012 to explore the
orangutan habitat from above using a drone. As it flew over the
rain forest, an attached camera would capture photographs of
orangutans and their treetop nests. Koh and Wich knew that
WORDS IN
CONTEXT
arboreal
Relating to trees
(often in refer-
ence to animals).
