His lithe frame at full stretch, an orang-utan attempts to spearfish in a river on Kaja Island, Borneo, mimicking what he has watched humans do.
Time and again he plunges his "spear" - a simple stick - into the murky water. When his exertions prove fruitless, he changes tack, using the implement to pull in nets, then making off with the fishermen's catch.
Elsewhere on the island, an orang-utan plunges into the river, swimming to the opposite side to steal fruit. His extraordinary feat - orang-utans have only recently learned to swim - was captured by photographer Jay Ullal for Thinkers Of The Jungle, a grim examination of the plight of the hairy red ape.
But while the Indian photojournalist captured the images and German journalist Gerd Schuster penned the words, the man at the heart of this emotional journal is conservationist Dr Willie Smits.
In 1980, aged 23, Smits went to Indonesia where, over the next years, he became guardian to the orang-utans, which for millions of years existed in South-East Asia but now survive only on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
The Dutchman formed Borneo Orangutan Survival International (BOS) in 1991. The organisation is credited with saving 1500 of the creatures, which face extinction because hunters prize them and illegal logging, climate change and fire have ravaged their habitat.
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that 98per cent of the natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo could be destroyed by 2022. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources expects that within three decades, the orang-utan could be categorised as extinct.
"In the animal kingdom, the orang-utans range among our closest relatives," Smits says. "Genetically they are about 97per cent identical with us - they are highly intelligent, thoughtful and inventive.
"They possess culture and a sense of beauty and they take after us in facial expressions, gestures and in many other respects. They are far more 'humane' than human beings and, it seems, therefore, they are too good for this world.
"They are incredibly strong yet they don't defend themselves against poachers or the logger gangs of the [palm oil] companies - and they are slaughtered without mercy."
BOS has introduced satellite technology to track illegal loggers - a significant step towards preserving the orang-utan and its habitat. But it is not only the orang-utan which is endangered. The Dayak tribe, which lives around Kaja Island, is also fighting for its very existence, says tribal chief Sina Sinam.
Rescue mission ... German photographer Jay Ullal captured the lives - and deaths - of Borneo's threatened orang-utans.
"Today we are almost finished," Sinam says. "The forest in which our people [have lived] since time immemorial has disappeared. The [BOS] gives us work ... as they try to save the numerous homeless orang-utans wandering around aimlessly in the palm oil plantations. Three of my children [are] employed by the BOS. The work helps us very much and the BOS now protects some of our island.
"We used to hunt the orang-utans and cut off their heads to use for our rituals. Now we realise that the orang-utans and we are fellow sufferers. We too will not survive without the rainforest. We still hope that our gods will help us."
Smits's work equips him to bring the orang-utan's plight to a global audience. His tales include that of a female orang-utan who stumbled from a burning forest with her child. She waited until a human drove by then remained deathly still as the man raced from the car, rescued her baby and drove away.
"Only when she saw her child was in the hands of humans did she turn around and clumsily go back into the smoke of the burning forest," Smits says.
"I recalled a story from the Old Testament - the mother who loved her child and wanted to save it, so renounced it, just like the female orang-utan did.
"Please do not think now that apes are unable to estimate their situation realistically, because that would be completely wrong. Animals stricken by such catastrophe know exactly that their world is disintegrating and that there is no more chance for them." Willie Smits arrives in Australia tomorrow for a four-day book tour.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/conservation
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