BACKGROUND Today the majority of wild great ape populations are found outside of the network of protected areas in both Africa and Asia, therefore determining if these populations are able to survive in forests that are exploited for timber or other extractive uses and how this is managed, is paramount for their conservation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In 2007, the "Kinabatangan Orang-uta...

BACKGROUND Dengue is prevalent among Malaysia's indigenous peoples, known as the Orang Asli, and it poses a serious health threat to them. The study aims to look at the socio-demographic factors, health beliefs, and knowledge about dengue and its association to dengue prevention practices among Orang Asli communities in Peninsular Malaysia. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 16...

Behavioural observations suggest that orang-utans are semi-solitary animals with females being philopatric and males roaming more widely in search of receptive partners, leading to the prediction that females are more closely related than males at any given site. In contrast, our study presents evidence for male and female philopatry in the orang-utan. We examined patterns of relatedness and pa...

A high level of sequence polymorphism combined with linkage disequilibrium has created a limited number of highly diverged haplotypes across the human Xp/Yp telomere junction region. To gain insight into the unusual genetic characteristics of this region, we have examined the orthologous sequences in the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ), the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the orang-utan (Pon...

Title:Molecular epidemiology of giardiasis among Orang Asli in Malaysia: application of the triosephosphate isomerase gene

BACKGROUND Double-burden of malnutrition (DBM) is an emerging public health concern among the Orang Asli (indigenous peoples) of Peninsular Malaysia. This study aimed to identify the presence of DBM at the community and household levels in Orang Asli population and its associated demographic and socio-economic factors. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in 11 Orang Asli villages...

Bornean orang-utans experienced a major demographic decline and local extirpations during the Pleistocene and Holocene due to climate change, the arrival of modern humans, of farmers and recent commercially-driven habitat loss and fragmentation. The recent loss of habitat and its dramatic fragmentation has affected the patterns of genetic variability and differentiation among the remaining popu...

Because of the difficulties encountered in detecting many large tropical forest-dwelling species in their natural habitat, precise figures concerning the distribution, number and trends of many populations remain deficient. In tropical forests, ground surveys are generally carried out by counting objects along straight lines. These counts require a strict compliance with the line-transect metho...

This article is based on the research results which were intended to identify consumerism trends among the Orang Asli, particularly with regards to purchase of luxury goods and management of their finances. The concept of consumerism refers to the motivation of an individual to identify himself or herself by means of a product or service, especially one which is commercially branded and denotes...

The aboriginal populations of Peninsular Malaysia, also known as Orang Asli (OA), comprise three major groups; Semang, Senoi and Proto-Malays. Here, we analyzed for the first time KIR gene polymorphisms for 167 OA individuals, including those from four smallest OA subgroups (Che Wong, Orang Kanaq, Lanoh and Kensiu) using polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) analyses. The...