Study started on release of rescued and “rehabilitated” orang utan in Sabah

NGO documenting how ‘rehabilitated’ animals cope in the wild
Ruben Sario, The Star 14 Jun 10;

KOTA KINABALU: An extensive study on rescued and “rehabilitated” orang utan that have been released back into the forests has begun in Sabah as part of efforts to ascertain how the animals are coping in the wild.

Three orang utan, implanted with tracking devices, were freed into the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, an area twice the size of Singapore and covered with primary and secondary forests.

It is part of a research by the Sabah Wildlife Department and The Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK, a non-governmental organisation based in Britain.

James Robins (pic), a primatologist from the NGO, said the study began last month and that it was the first time that the primates were implanted with telemetry devices to enable researchers to track them in the forests.

“This would enable wildlife researchers and me to keep tabs on the orang utan in Tabin,” he added.

“We track them on a daily basis. One of the most important aspects of our research is to document the behaviour of the newly released orang utan including the type of fruits they are feeding on and whether they are getting enough to eat.

“If we are unable to immediately identify the food that they eat, we will collect the samples and identify them at a later date,” he said.

Robins said it was important for wildlife researchers to compare the data they had on the rehabilitated orang utan with their counterparts in the wild.

“We are looking at things like behavioural data, nesting behaviour or feeding ecology,” said Robins, who was among the participants of a recent workshop on the action plans for Sabah’s iconic wildlife namely the orang utan, the Borneo pygmy elephant and Borneo Sumatran rhino.

He said this when a participant questioned whether there had been any follow-up research on primates from Sandakan’s internationally renowned orang utan rehabilitation centre that were released into the wild.

Robins said the post-release research was crucial as the orang utan were young orphans who had to be taught skills on foraging, for instance.

“So the research will enable us to find out whether we will need to change any part of the rehabilitation process to enable them to better cope in the wild,” he added.