![]() And, if they find one, they will clear it out and the female will seal herself in. ![]() Every year they look for a hollow cavity. HADIPRAKARSA: This pair will mate for life. And, the hornbills would use their long beak, it’s very useful, they can reach in and pluck out the seed with the flesh on it, and leave the husk behind. This is what it would look like when it is ripe and pops open. Here’s another kind of fruit, hornbills like. And, so, I’m trying to document this bird to show people what it’s like and try to get some more attention for it, before it’s too late. But, recently, there’s been a surge in the demand for the carved hornbill products…and this has led to kind of an industrial-scale poaching with hunters with guns. Local people have been hunting this bird for a long time and it’s somehow survived. This hornbill has this really unique horn on its head. LAMAN: These Helmeted Hornbills, they’ve been occupying these forests for thousands of years. In 2015, it leaped from Near Threatened into the Critically Endangered, which is one step before extinction. In West Kalimantan, alone, in 2013, alone. HADIPRAKARSA: In my estimation, it’s about six thousand Helmeted Hornbills that have been killed. There are probably thousands that were estimated to have been exported from Indonesia, just in the past few years. And these here are just the ones that were captured by the authorities. We have here, about…How many Yoki? We have about a hundred? LAMAN: This here is kind of amazing because you can see…you can still see the feathers. LAMAN: There was a moment when the female pulled her head out and it was like they almost touched beaks. The female was working on the entrance, for a long time, my neck is so sore! LAMAN: A female and a male both came to the nest cavity. HADIPRAKARSA: There’s an adult male, Helmeted Hornbill, inspecting the nest. LAMAN: That’s why this protected forest is so important with remaining old trees. When there’s ten pairs of Helmeted Hornbills, let’s say in this area, probably only one or two are capable to breed in one season because the availability of this unique cavity as the nest, is very low. So, that’s why, you know, for the Helmeted Hornbill, the requirement for the nest is also challenging for them. This cavity, surprisingly, can only be found in the ancient healthy rainforest, which is in the big trees, above one-meter diameter, which is also very rare. LAMAN in native language: See any birds? LAMAN in native language: Have you checked the nest site today? We heard about a possible nest site for a rare bird that has become critically endangered…almost overnight. It is a three-hour journey, deep into one of the last remaining tropical rainforests in Indonesia. I’m heading up the forest interior in Borneo with the biologist and photographer, Tim Laman. YOKI HADIPRAKARSA: My name is Yoki Hadiprakarsa.
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