ZCZC
BFF-27
INDONESIA-ENVIRONMENT
Indonesia pet orangutans released back into the wild
JAKARTA, June 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The young orangutan looks back at her
rescuers before clambering over her steel cage and into the trees, swinging
from hand to hand and hanging upside down.
Five-year-old primate Elaine, covered in fuzzy cinnamon-coloured hair, was
one of two critically endangered Sumatran Orangutans released back into the
wild Tuesday.
Both female apes were rescued after being kept as pets by villagers in
Aceh province on Sumatra island.
Elaine and four-year-old Reipok Rere spent nearly two years learning to
fend for themselves at a rehabilitation centre and “forest school” before
being returned to the wild at Pinus Jantho Forest Reserve.
The healthy pair have joined nearly 120 other orangutans freed from
captivity at the conservation site, said the Aceh natural resources
conservation agency.
The rescue is a rare spot of bright news for the critically endangered
species, which has seen its habitat shrink drastically over the past few
decades largely due to the destruction of forests for logging, paper, palm
oil and mining.
A string of fatal attacks on the great apes in recent has been blamed on
farmers and hunters.
Plantation workers and villagers are sometimes known to attack the animal
because they see it as a pest, while poachers also capture them to sell as
pets.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1201 hrs