meREWARDS allows you to get coupons and earn cash when you conduct full surveys, dinner and purchase with our partners
YAKARTA: Two critically endangered orangutans have been rescued from captivity on the island of Java in Indonesia and sent to a rehabilitation center in Borneo to assess that they can be released into the wild, a conservation organization said.
Samson and Boboy, men and elders in their 20s, were malnourished when they were taken out of an amusement park and a personal circle of family at home, according to a report from International Animal Rescue (IAR).
The two Borneo orangutans were known to be in captivity illegally in October last year before a bailout was organized, said Darmanto, director of Indonesia’s nature conservation company in Central Java.
The orangutans, who had been caged, were sent to a rehabilitation center in Ketapang, West Kalimantan province in Borneo, the IAR said.
At the centre, they will be subjected to aptitude checks and quarantined for two months before being assessed if they can be sent back to nature.
“It’s very unhappy to see Americans like Samson and Boboy living in freedom in their herb habitat, but instead they’ve been confined to cages for years,” Karmele L said.Sanchez, program manager at IAR Indonesia.
“The rehabilitation procedure for rescued orangutans is long and complicated.It will be incredibly difficult for an orangutan who has been locked in a cage all his life to be informed in the wild,” Sanchez said.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, around 100,000 Borneo orangutans remain in the wild, and the population is reduced by more than 50% for more than 60 years.
Animals have suffered illegal poaching, such as habitat destruction due to large-scale logging and the replacement of forests with monetary crops such as palm oil.