Orangutans Saved in Borneo

By AFOP, January 28th 2012

A combination of factors including deforestation, expansion of plantations, poaching and the illegal wildlife trade are threatening the very survival of orangutans in Borneo. With habitat loss, orangutans and humans come into conflict, particularly when orangutans may venture on to plantations in their search for food and shelter.

Recently, workers from the UK-based Four Paws Animal Rescue working at the Samboja orangutan orphanage, located on the east coast of Borneo island were alerted to news of systematic killings of orangutans. News surfaced that plantation owners were paying locals $105/ £67 to kill any orangutans encroaching on farmland. Workers scouring parts of Borneo did not find any surviving orangutans from the alleged killings but did discover a mother and baby orangutan clinging to each other for life, surrounded by armed men.

The visibly terrified animals were rescued minutes before they were about to be ruthlessly slaughter for the high bounty. The animals were then taken away from the plantation and cared for by Four Paws workers, until being released back into the wild. Just before releasing the orangutans, the mother was equipped with a radio transmitter, which will allow animal rescue workers to monitor their progress in their new home.

Orangutan populations have declined significantly in the last 100 years from 230,000 a century ago to around 7,500 in Sumatra and 55,000 in Borneo today. In a study published in PLoS One science journal and conducted between 2008-2009, researchers in Borneo interviewed 6987 respondents in 687 villages to determine the rates of orangutan killings. The results revealed a staggering 750-1800 orangutans were killed within a year. Orangutans are killed for different reasons, as bush meat, because they are sometimes considered pests and intruders on plantations and so that their body parts can be sold as tourist trinkets.

Luckily for this mother and baby orangutan they were saved just in time, however many other orangutans have not been so lucky in the past.

Four Paws- Four Paws releases rescued orangutans into a safe forrest area

PLoS One- Quantifying Killing of Orangutans and Human-Orangutan Conflict in Kalimantan

(CC) Image by Lionel Leo