JAKARTA: Around 910 orangutans (Pongo pugmaues) are killed

JAKARTA: Around 910 orangutans (Pongo pugmaues) are killed every year in Indonesia, spokewomen for the Semboja Orangutan Reintroduction and Rehabilitation Center Jean Mandala said in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Tuesday.

Jean said the figure was based on the assumption that illegal hunters often kill three orangutans just to catch one.

"The number (of orangutan deaths) is still based on a rough calculation," Jean was quoted as saying by Antara.

In the meantime, the number of giant primates successfully saved reaches 182 annually most of which are being treated at the Semboja rehabilitation center.

"Orangutans being raised in Semboja rehabilitation center are mostly those confiscated from members of the public," she said, adding: "Those which have gone astray or escaped from their habitat should not undergo rehabilitation and reintroduction program at the center, but they will have to be rescued and moved to forestry area as the habitat of these protected animals."

The Semboja center has succeeded in developing this rehabilitation and reintroduction program for orangutans, so that those protected animals could turn to be wilder and live in the forest without depending on human beings. --Antara