Rescue program returns orangutan to forests
By Yenni Kwok
JAKARTA (JP): One of Willie Smits' jobs is returning orangutans that have been kept as pets to the rain forests of Kalimantan.
The rescue program, based at the Wanariset Forest research station in East Kalimantan, is part of the larger orangutan reintroduction project that Smits has been in charge of since January 1991.
Returning the orangutans to their natural habitat is not an overnight process. Orangutans that have lived in a human's world usually lose their independence and need to be retrained to survive in the wild. An orangutan arriving at the Wanariset station will need an average of three and a half years to learn to be independent again, Smits said.
The Wanariset station has received 250 orphaned orangutans. Most of the protected creatures were confiscated in Kalimantan, but some were returned from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Orangutans are popular pets in Taiwan. In fact, a favorite destination for black marketeers selling young orangutan is Taiwan, where it is legal to keep an orangutan.
Once an orangutan is brought to the Wanariset reintroduction center, it has to go through a quarantine phase, followed by a socialization and food training phase. During this phase, it learns to improve its locomotory skills before it is released into the nearby protected forests in Sungai Wain and Meratus.
The veterinary quarantine is necessary to prevent sick orangutans from being released into a healthy group and infecting the others. This is also the reason why no ex-rehabilitation orangutans should come in contact with wild orangutan populations.
Orangutans are not only susceptible to their species' diseases. Many of the confiscated ones suffer from human diseases because orangutans are biologically close to humans, Smits said. Thus, the required health screening includes testing for human diseases, such as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and tuberculosis.
Current population estimates place the number of orangutan in Kalimantan between 10,000 and 15,000. Their existence is threatened by hunting and the illegal trade of young animals. People looking for baby orangutans as pets usually want them because they are small and irresistibly cute.
A mother orangutan usually carries her baby near her breast or on her back while hanging from the tree tops. Hunters usually shoot the mother, causing both the baby and mother to fall. The babies are easily captured and the mothers often die. The babies sometimes survive, sometimes they don't.
"For every baby orangutan found in the market, three or four may have died falling from the trees," said Christine Luckett, acting chairwoman of the Balikpapan Orangutan Society.
The hunters sometimes take the skulls of the orangutans and sell them as "fake human skull" souvenirs.
Because of the government's rules, logging companies can only take out certain large tree species, not the smaller sized fruit trees that orangutans need so much for survival, Smits said.
He admits that logging still has an indirect impact on the orangutans' survival. The logging concessions open up the forest by constructing roads, which provide easy access for illegal hunters to enter the forest. The areas, he said, were previously impossible to reach because hunters would have to walk a long distance to the remote forest areas.
Recent studies have found that baby orangutans normally stay with their mothers for five to seven years. During that time, the babies learn many things from their mothers, such as what they can eat, when and what trees are fruiting, how to climb and make nests as well as other survival skills.
Orangutans at the Wanariset center vary in age, from several weeks old to six years old. They normally stay three years at the center before they are large enough to survive in their group and withstand the clouded leopards that still live in the forests.
After being released, the orangutans are still monitored for at least half a year. The Wanariset center helps those who need extra food or medical care for wounds.
Three and half years of care can amount to an expensive operation. An average of Rp 8.5 million (US$3,400) is needed to save one orangutan from confiscation and to return it to the jungle. Right now, the center houses 100 orangutan orphans, and the number is growing. Some of the orangutans that arrive are incurably sick. Currently, the center's 11 Hepatitis B sufferers are kept in isolated cages, where they will remain for a lifetime.
The reintroduction project has long worked with the Balikpapan Orangutan Society to raise funds and people's awareness. Since last October, Green Bear, a London-based environmental organization, has included orangutan rehabilitation in its worldwide Back to Nature campaign.
In Indonesia, the Holiday Inn hotel chain is helping out by asking each of its guests to make a $2 donation to the project. The donation is then handed over to the Balikpapan Orangutan Society, which manages the costs for the project.
Another fund-raising effort is adopting an orangutan. Only by paying a one-time donation of Rp 8.5 million can somebody adopt an orangutan. The foster parent will receive some photos and a biography of the orangutan, Wanariset publications and a life- time membership with the Balikpapan Orangutan Society.
Some prominent public figures have lent their support, Smits said. Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo adopted an orangutan, named Djamal, while Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands adopted one called Beatrix.
Individuals have also offered to lend a helping hand. Three painters, Pauline Schmutzer, Lim Hui Yung and Josephine Linggar, recently exhibited their animal paintings at the Holiday Inn, Jakarta. Hui Yung and Josephine contributed 25 percent of their sale proceeds to the project, while Schmutzer donated 100 percent.
Orangutans live in groups of about one to four animals per square kilometer. The Wanariset center plans to release 26 orangutans by helicopter into the protected forest of Meratus on April 19. The team has to be very careful in deciding where to place the orangutans that have "graduated" from the program.
"The maximum number of orangutans we release in an area is one per 100 hectares of good forest so that we know for sure there is enough food in the forest to support them," said Smits, who is also a personal advisor to the minister of forestry.
But the demand for pet orangutans continues. Over the last few weeks, a number of orangutans have been confiscated from Central and East Kalimantan. The Wanariset center plans to confiscate four others in Kalimantan and four more in Java.
Instead of a success, Smits regards his rescue actions as a sign of losing. "We aim to increase people's awareness that they should not hunt or own orangutans. But as long as we are still confiscating orangutans, we have yet to succeed."