Three baby orangutans released into the wild

The Jakarta Post 15 Oct 10;

JAKARTA: Three orphaned baby orangutans recently rescued in an East Kalimantan jungle by the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) will be released into the wild, an environmental group said Thursday.

BOS Foundation, a local NGO dedicated to Kalimantan orangutan conservation, said it was in discussion with international donors about funding of the primates’ release.

BOS spokesman Emilia Bassar said in a media statement that the foundation accepted the baby orangutans after COP had threatened to take them to Le Grandeur Hotel in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, where a conservation conference was taking place.

BOS runs two centers for orphaned orangutan reintroduction into the wild, one in Samboja Les-tari of East Kalimantan and the other in Nyaru Menteng in Central Kalimantan.

Foundation chairman Togu Manurung said that both facilities became overcrowded and the next reintroduction project would start early next year.

“We accepted the three babies and risked failure in reintroducing them into the wild because we do not know if they have tuberculosis or hepatitis, which are prevalent among the animals,” he said. — JP