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