Critically Endangered
Gorillas are certainly the largest of the apes, but the Bornean Orangutan is the largest of the orangutans which makes them the second biggest. Not surprisingly, these are from the island of Borneo. Their habitat has decreased over 55% in the last 20 years, much of it for palm oil production. While habitat loss is their biggest threat, hunting and illegal capture of the young for pet trade is also a huge problem. Each year in just the Indonesian portion of Borneo as many as 500 young orangutans are taken and turned into pets. Orangutans only breed every 6-8 years which is the slowest of all mammals. They also nurse their babies for up to 7 years with their young staying dependent on their mothers longer than any other animal except humans. This means they only usually are able to have 4 offspring in their lifetime. Because of that it is especially devastating to the population when so many of their babies are taken out of the wild. Those who study them have discovered they eat over 400 different things! They are quite intelligent. They even have been observed using a certain leaf they mix with their saliva to make an anti-inflammatory salve they will apply to sore spots. Local people actually use the same leaf for topical pain relief too.
I heard from the eye doctor today. She sent me another prescription. Hopefully it will work better. I went back to where I'd gotten the glasses. It was very confusing to them because of how different the prescriptions were. I went from 2 single vision glasses to only one prescription. What they did was just do a straight refund, and tomorrow they will call the insurance and have them reverse things. I won't be able to go in and re-order my glasses until possibly Wednesday. Since I have my old ones to wear I can at least function. Today my left eye was still a little painful from trying the other ones for less than a day total. I am a bit nervous about the whole prescription still. Because I have prisms, it can be incredibly difficult to get it right, and she added vertical prism along with the usual prism I have she's added vertical prism. When I look at the eye chart without any help, I see 2 big E's, and the right one is higher than the other. Ok, I don't actually see 2 big E's, I see 2 big fuzzy blobs. I actually notice it when they do something with a light that looks red in one eye and white in the other and they keep adding lenses until you get them to come together. If eye surgery would absolutely fix my eyes without the possibility of halos or other side effects that can happen, I would jump at the chance, or at least after saving up money for it. My eyes are not the best candidates for eye surgery I've been told. Maybe one day they will come up with a way to make it work for me.
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