Indonesian orangutans given rare second chance

Antara, 16 August 2006:

Indonesian orangutans given rare second chance at forest life

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian orangutans which used to perform

at a seaside park in the capital were flown to Borneo Tuesday where

they will prepare to resume jungle life, animal workers said.

They said the rare voluntary handover of 13 orangutans set a good

precedent for other Indonesian parks, many of which hold conservation

licenses. Due to vague laws, this permits them to make the endangered

primates perform.

"This is important because it sets a very good example for other

institutions which have a licence and keep orangutans," Irma

Hermawati, the director of Indonesia's Animal Advocacy Institute,

told AFP.

The saffron-haired animals were handed over by Ancol recreational

park to the forestry department on Tuesday, after the institute

lodged complaints with the park.

The primates had been given to the park by individuals who could no

longer keep them as pets, said Wahyu Wigati, a spokesperson for the

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.

Indonesia's forestry department handed custody of the animals to the

foundation, which runs a rehabilitation centre in jungle-clad East

Kalimantan on Borneo island where animals are taught how to live in

the wild.

Three left Tuesday and four more of the group were to leave on

Thursday, but the remainder needed medical treatment or observation

in the capital for now, Wigati told AFP.

Training involves a gradual process of introducing them to other

orangutans, adapting their diet and allowing them to learn to use

forest items, before moving them to a halfway house and then finally

the jungle.

The process can take up to five years.

The centre last month accepted two smuggled orangutans which were

repatriated from Vietnam.

Parmitha Ananda, a manager from the centre, said an ongoing issue was

finding locations to release rehabilitated apes.

"There is not a lot of forest any more in Kalimantan, in Borneo. We

work very hard, together with the forestry department, to find new

release sites," she told AFP.

Orangutans, the only great ape to be found outside of Africa, are

native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and to Borneo.

Experts say only about 27,000 remain in the wild and populations are

fast declining due to deforestation and trafficking.