Few rescued orangutans go back to natural wild<\/p>\n
TANJUNG PUTING, Central Kalimantan (JP): Before Gistok was
\nbrought to Tanjung Puting National Park and orangutan
\nrehabilitation center, he wore clothing over his long red hair
\nand ate tea and cakes with the children of a family in Central
\nKalimantan.<\/p>\n
A princely existence for an orangutan, but table manners don't
\nhelp when it comes to survival in the forest. At Tanjung Puting,
\nrangers try to do the impossible -- teach orangutans who have
\nbeen estranged from the forest to live in their natural
\nenvironment.<\/p>\n
"Think about a small human child raised in a cage or in a
\ncloset. Are they normal? No," said a scientist familiar with the
\npark.<\/p>\n
Many of the orangutans that come to Tanjung Puting, one of
\nfive orangutan rehabilitation centers in Malaysia and Indonesia,
\nhave suffered from neglect in captivity. The park has a
\nformidable challenge in trying to instill information about
\nsurvival to orangutans who are already a few years old. Humans
\nare still working to determine the scope of this information,
\nwhich the animals would have learned naturally from their
\nmothers.<\/p>\n
Tanjung Puting is lauded internationally for its work
\nintegrating species and environmental conservation. The park has
\nsaved 161 orangutans since 1971, members of an endangered species
\nwho otherwise would have died from being in captivity.<\/p>\n
Of these, 122 now swing through the trees in a safe
\nenvironment as semi-wild animals, those who essentially live
\nindependently but still appear at the camp from time to time.
\nThese orangutans, who would not have had the opportunity to mate
\nin captivity, have given birth to 25 babies at Tanjung Puting.<\/p>\n
But only a handful of the rescued orangutans return to the
\nwild completely, able to live entirely independent of human care.
\nThis fact is testimony to the ambition of Tanjung Puting and the
\nextent of damage that can come to an animal in human hands.<\/p>\n
The success of the reintroduction effort "depends on how long
\nthe orangutan was kept by people, and how intensively the owner
\ntook care of the orangutan," says Herry Susilo, the head of
\nTanjung Puting.<\/p>\n
Gistok fared better in captivity than most orangutans. The
\nillegal pet trade landed him in a loving family who did their
\nbest to care for his needs.<\/p>\n
Yet Gistok suffers from is an inability to shake his domestic
\nupbringing.<\/p>\n
Three years after arriving at Tanjung Puting, seven-year-old
\nGistok has learned to ply his way through the forest and find
\nbark, fruit and leaves to eat, but he still can't make a nest to
\nsleep in the safety of the treetops. When the sun goes down,
\nGistok curls up like a dog and goes to sleep on one of the park's
\nmany feeding platforms or docks, where he slumbers fitfully,
\noften waking to the sounds of would-be predators.<\/p>\n
Gistok is still as comfortable socializing with humans as he
\nis with other orangutans; watching him drink from a teacup he
\nsnatched from a boat suggests that his civilized past is still in
\nrecent memory. Visitors find him adorable, park rangers call him
\nnaughty, and Gistok remains a misfit who would not survive long
\noutside park borders.<\/p>\n
Although visitors are free to roam throughout Tanjung Puting,
\nrangers hope that they will remember the park is for
\nreintegrating the animals into the wild and not a public petting
\nzoo.<\/p>\n
Some wildlife biologists such as Ron Lilley, species
\nconservation officer at World Wide Fund for Nature, concur with
\nthe park rangers. "It's all very well that people want the
\ntouchy-feely experience because the orangutans are so lovable,
\nbut they do the orangutans a great disservice."<\/p>\n
The strategy of the park is to let orangutans like Gistok
\nrehabilitate themselves as much as possible under the tutelage of
\nfellow "people of the forest."<\/p>\n
Newly rescued orangutans spend only as much time in the
\nconfines of the clinic as is necessary to ascertain that they are
\nno carrying human diseases into the park.<\/p>\n
At Tanjung Harapan, the first camp along the Sekoyner River,
\norangutans are set free. They learn to socialize with other
\norangutans, who teach them how to find food in the forest. As
\norangutans eat an estimated 400 varieties of food to ensure their
\nsurvival in times of scarcity, it is really only other red-haired
\napes who are capable of teaching them.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, rangers hold feedings twice a day with bananas and
\nmilk to make sure the animals get enough food. Orangutans
\nthroughout the park devour 700 kilos of bananas each week at
\nthese feedings.<\/p>\n
Rangers soon place the orangutans in trees or on large sticks
\nso they can learn to climb and make nests. Rangers give the
\norangutans leaves to sleep on to simulate the natural environment
\nfrom their earliest days in the park.<\/p>\n
When orangutans stop coming regularly to the feedings, they
\ngraduate to a camp a few kilometers upriver, Pondok Tanggui, so
\nthey can live in the forest with orangutans who are more
\nindependent.<\/p>\n
Rangers still offer bananas at Pondok Tanggui twice a day, but
\nit is hoped that the orangutans will be less dependent upon them
\nto survive.<\/p>\n
Some orangutans disappear in the forest quickly. Others, like
\nGistok, may never make the leap to independence because of the
\nintensity of their experience in captivity. But at least Gistok
\nis now free to swing in the trees. (Becky Mowbray)<\/p>",
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