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| Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation |
In order to celebrate the construction of a new orangutan enclosure at Colchester Zoo, Action for the Wild donated £5,000 to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) in 2007 and plans to continue support in 2009. BOS works to ensure the survival of the orangutan. Wild orangutans displaced by the conversion of forest habitat to oil-palm plantations are at great risk of death either by starving or through human/wildlife conflict. Over 400 wild orangutans have been rescued by the BOS Nyaru Menteng project; 115 have been reintroduced to a safe forest adjacent to the Mawas reserve, but this area is now at capacity. In order to continue to rescue orangutans, those that are now resident in the project need to be translocated to the Betikap valley region as soon as possible, and wild orangutans rescued in the future also need to be quickly translocated. In the last three years, Nyaru Menteng has rescued hundreds of orangutans and many other animals such as gibbons and bears from the oil-palm plantations. Recently, Nyaru Menteng searched and surveyed several areas which could have potential for release of the rescued wild orangutans. They found the Betikap valley, in the remote northern region of Central Kalimantan. The area fulfils all the criteria set not only by the government, but also by the scientific community of orangutan experts for translocation. Action for the Wild’s donation of £5,000 was used to help fund the release of four orangutans back into their natural habitat. Action for the Wild's sponsored orangutans are Mama Abut and her baby Abut, who featured in BBC1's Orangutan Diary programme, a 12-14 year old female called Meadows and a male called Bagrong, who has giant cheek pads. In April 2007, transit cages and a helicopter were used to conduct relocations. On the 4th April 2007, the first 8 adults and 4 of their offspring were taken up to forest transit cages by plane. The following day, an additional 16 adults and 8 infants were also taken up to the cages. From the 7th until the 18th April, all 36 orangutans were brought to forest sites in a helicopter two at a time, and were released along the Busang River. They were mainly released at the mouth of small rivers so they had two rivers to use for navigating their new home. Food supply is also usually higher along the rivers and by releasing them here they were given a better start in this new unfamiliar place. Our sponsored individuals were released into the Barito Ulu research area, which is a 900 ha large valley encatchment. Here extensive gibbon research and phenology plots have been logged since the early nineties and the area has a complete transect system used for monitoring the orangutans. Once spotted our orangutans are followed for 10 consecutive days from early morning until they make their nests late afternoon in order to monitor their well-being. In 2008/9, Action for the Wild will sponsor the release of rehabilitated orphans. The first orphans will be released in March-April, combined with wild orangutans in a different area. Then hopefully BOS will release further orphans later in the year. In the future, BOS aims to release a minimum total of 104-114 rehabilitated orphans and wild orangutans combined per year. A picture of Mama Pelek after release Picture credited to Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. |
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No. 1105621 Trustees A C Downing, S D Knuckey, L J Spurgeon, P R Johnson