A Photographic Celebration of Nature
To celebrate a another important milestone for ALERT -- we are now reaching up to half a million readers each week -- we are going to do something a bit different.
Rather than talk about the dire need for nature conservation, we're going to share some images of the last place on Earth where Orangutans, Tigers, Elephants, and Rhinos still coexist -- along with an abundance of other species — the Leuser Ecosystem of Indonesia.
Getting there was half the fun (photo by William Laurance)
A rainforest dragonfly (photo (c) Suprayudi)
A mother Orangutan and her baby feeding on bark they've stripped off a tree (photo by William Laurance)
A rainforest kingfisher in hunting mode (photo (c) Suprayudi)
Suprayudi describes a favorite food of orangutans -- a rainforest fruit whose seeds they disperse (photo by William Laurance)
The glorious beauty of a rainforest gecko (photo (c) Suprayudi)
A rainforest forb in flower (photo by William Laurance)
One of the bolder Long-Tailed Macaques -- the rest of his troop had already fled as we approached (photo by William Laurance)
A tree-snake slithers into our campsite (photo (c) Siprayudi)
Thomas' Langur, a species of leaf monkey, feeding on foliage (photo by William Laurance)
Beauty near the rainforest floor (photo (c) Suprayudi)
An evening mist settles over the rainforest (photo by William Laurance)
We saw amazing things at night. A spotlight reveals the huge eyes of a Slow Loris, a rainforest primate (photo (c) Siprayudi).
A Sumatran Elephant feeding on grass verging the rainforest (photo by William Laurance)
These small tree-vipers are among the most common snakes in the Leuser Ecosystem (photo (c) Suprayudi)
A five foot-long Water Monitor, a smaller cousin of the Komodo Dragon (photo by William Laurance)
Oil palm planted illegally inside the Leuser Ecosystem (photo by William Laurance)
Each year farms, tracks, and roads encroach further into the Leuser Ecosystem -- conservationists are trying to staunch the forest loss (photo (c) Suprayudi)
It's important to remember what we're fighting for -- visit the Leuser Ecosystem and see the wonders of Sumatra's imperiled nature (photo (c) Suprayudi)
To learn more about the Leuser Ecosystem or help to save it, contact the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme or Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh.
All photos by Bill Laurance and Suprayudi