Posted November 9, 2016 in All
Relocated and rehabilitated orangutans are enjoying good health in their new surroundings in the protected Lamandau Wildlife Reserve in Indonesian Borneo.
In the last year there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of rescues carried out by the Orangutan Foundation – 32 since September 2015. The rescues have mainly been around one area where habitat loss is occurring at an alarming rate, and the critically endangered orangutans are becoming stranded in community land or the forests they live in are being destroyed and turned into oil-palm plantations.
Thanks to the rescue and translocation project, the vital forest ecosystem of the Lamandau reserve which wildlife depends on is conserved and a healthy and viable orangutan population lives there.
Once they display important skills such as climbing, finding food and nest building, the orangutans can be released into surrounding forest where they are monitored. Kotim and Torup were released earlier this year and it’s great news that they can now only be spotted in the trees and not seen visiting the feeding stations, because this means they are capable of finding food in the forest and are fully integrated into living in the wild.
Sugih was severely malnourished and needed urgent vet treatment when she was found, but she is now a very active and healthy 5 year old displaying wild behaviour, which means she too will soon be ready for release.
And it’s not just orangutans – in the summer the team managed to successfully rescue and translocate a 3m long crocodile which was being kept as a pet!
Colchester Zoo’s Action for the Wild charity has proudly supported the Orangutan Foundation project since 2010 and this year donated a further £5,000 towards the vital work to relocate orangutans and help pay for vet costs, critical for the orangutans’ health and wellbeing.
Article kindly written by ©Sarah Jones Beer
