Orang utans reintroduced to the wild with transmitter implants

Orang utan with implants
Muguntan Vanar, The Star 24 Nov 09;

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department marked a milestone with its orang utan rehabilitation when it became the first in the world to use transmitter implants to monitor progress of the primates reintroduced into the wild.

The transmitter, the size of a 50-sen coin, developed by Austrian university professors would help orang utan conservationists to keep track of rehabilitated primates when they are released.

“Over the years, we have been actively releasing a small number of orang utan back into the forest, however we have had no way of monitoring them after release,” said state Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu.

“Being primates with hands like ours, placing a radio-tracking collar on the orang utan was impossible as they could easily take it off.”

To address this issue, the department, which worked with Dr Christian Waltzer and Dr Thierry Petit of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Austria, carried out the first field trial with orang-utan from the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre late September.

Before coming to Sabah, Dr Waltzer and Dr Petit had tested the method on captive orang utan in France on March 18 this year, to see whether there were any harmful effects on the orang utan, said Laurentius.

He said following the success in France, the department then proceeded with their assistance to implant three orang utan in Sepilok in late September.

According to the department’s Chief Field Veterinarian, Dr Senthilvel Nathan, the three orang utan chosen were doing well and rangers in Sepilok were monitoring them daily.

“After the surgery to place the implants, we have been watching them closely and our rangers have had time to practise with the tracking equipment within the jungle of Sepilok, we are confident about using this method,” he said.

He added that the transmitter was placed in the neck area where the skin was thick and had fat deposits.

The device can also be switched on or off by using a magnet without any surgery.

Malaysia tracks orangutans with implants
Yahoo News 24 Nov 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysian wildlife authorities are using electronic implants to keep track of orangutans in a bid to protect the endangered apes after they are freed into the wild, an official said Tuesday.

Laurentius Ambu, wildlife department head in Sabah state on Borneo island, said three orangutans had coin-sized transmitters implanted in their necks in September.

"These are rescued orangutans. Eventually they will be reintroduced into the wild and we would like to monitor their movement, to know how they are doing in the forests," he told AFP.

"We would like to ensure the orangutans are safe."

The three chosen orangutans now live in a sanctuary in Sabah that houses about 250 orangutans in all.

Laurentius said the department aims to gradually install the transmitter on more orangutans in the state, which has about 11,000 of the primates.

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysian's eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo island.

A 2007 assessment by the United Nations Environment Program warned that orangutans would be virtually eliminated in the wild within two decades if current rates of deforestation continue.

Orangutan habitats in Malaysia and Indonesia are disappearing as their jungle homes are cleared for logging and to make way for plantations.