Rescued but Not Free

We think all concerned must have been surprised to find a 12-year-old male sun bear being kept as a pet by Mr Sutiyo, the vice-head of the district resort police. Mr Sutiyo had kept the sun bear for 12 years, feeding him a fattening diet of rice, sugar and honey. Upon the arrival of a translocation team, the bear was anaesthetised by the Foundation vet, Dr Wawan, and put into a large cage so that he could be transported to Pangkalan Bun.

As Mr Sutiyo was leaving Sampit, for Jakarta, he finally made the decision to give his pet up to the authorities, and allow him be returned to the wild. Unfortunately, since the sun bear has been kept as a pet for so many years, and is very overweight due to its poor diet, it will not make a suitable candidate for release. Exotic pets lack the ability to feed, protect or more generally fend for themselves in the wild, and they face an extremely low rate of survival if released without these skills.

For this reason, our staff could not free the sun bear into one of the Foundation’s release sites. Instead it was coordinated that the sun bear be taken to Orangutan Foundation International’s (OFI) orangutan care and quarantine facility, where he will get the care he needs, yet sadly with little hope of eventual release.

This is a prime example of the unfair consequences of keeping wild animals as pets, and is sadly not the first case we’ve heard of people in authoritative positions being held accountable. Cases like these only highlight the importance of our educational programmes, through which the Foundation endeavours to teach local communities the implications of holding orangutans captive. We hope that these programmes continue to be met with great success.

Help us to continue this much-needed work by donating toward our educational programmes in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. http://www.orangutan.org.uk/how-to-help/make-a-donation

From fruit garden to forest refuge...

Whilst orangutans are found in oil palm plantation or community land, it means their habitat is still shrinking. However these orangutans can still have a safe future in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.  Already this year two orangutans have been rescued and translocated into the Reserve. This is Kuala’s story, sent by one of our staff,  a six year old male, he had been damaging the village garden of Mr Joko. Mr Joko kept him for over a week, before a neighbour pointed out that orangutans are a protected species.  Mr Joko then contacted the BKSDA who, with the Orangutan Foundation's vet and staff, travelled to the village 'a 10 hour journey from the Foundations office', where Kuala (named after the village) was handed over.

After all the required health checks were clear he was able to be transferred to the Reserve.

Seemingly impatient to be back in the forest, Kuala stood rattling his cage and looking upwards at the trees. Once the cage door was opened he surveyed his surroundings and then without hesitation was straight up a tree. He was moving so quickly from tree to tree that it was difficult for the staff monitoring him to keep up, but by the end of the day, they were able to see he had already made his night nest, back in the wild where he belongs, and safe.  He was monitored for the next ten days.