On 4 September 2012, Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia (RHOI) and the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) successfully conducted yet another rescue and release operation of a wild adult male orangutan who this time, was found in a smallholder oil palm plantation at Wana Sari village, Wahau district in East Kalimantan.
Plantation worker Ibu Nuraini first sighted this orangutan and reported its presence to Sujar, a plantation foreman. Subsequently Pak Sujar reported it to Police Chief of Wahau District who thankfully contacted our RHOI office in the district. Meanwhile within the oil palm plantation, people fearful of the orangutan and any damage they thought he may do, led to the local community taking actions to catch the orangutan and tie him up with a nylon rope. This poor orangutan must have been exhausted as normally you cannot restrain an adult male orangutan in this way.
Considering this situation, rapid action was required to conduct a rescue and release operation in order to prevent the orangutan from becoming anymore afraid or stressed, which may result in triggering the people on site to panic. Hence, once we received the report from the Police Chief, RHOI coordinated with BOSF and the local BKSDA office, and appointed Musa from RHOI and the Police Chief to carry out this immediate rescue and release. Our team in the field named the orangutan “Kehje Out Siah” which means "An old man who is released near Out River" and proceeded to complete the rescue mission and release the orangutan in the forest located near to the BOS Foundation and RHOI’s orangutan release area. At the moment of release, Kehje Out Siah, despite being exhausted immediately climbed up into his new forest and into safety.
All of our rescue missions are conducted to the highest standards possible, but in situations such as this we are forced to take emergency decisions and actions. In this case we had few or no resources (as you will see from the photos) and must ensure we have equipment at this particular site to deal with these types of situations. Therefore we seek support to enable us to build transportation enclosures and few additional supplies to ensure any future rescues are safe for both the oranguan and for the team conducting rescues.
Without BOS Foundation and RHOI action this story may have had a very sorry ending, like the recent burning of an orangutan in West Kalimantan. We were lucky that we were contacted in Wahau, but this further highlights the need to work with oil palm plantations to ensure Best Management Practices for orangutans are being conducted, that workers know how to behave around orangutans and what safe action to take.
The BOS Foundation, together with the KLHK and the BKSDA of Central Kalimantan will soon conduct the 44th orangutan release from the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Centre to the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR).
Every year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day to honour the planet that is home to us all.
It was a usual day at the Nyaru Menteng forest school, where young orangutans were learning from one another while their human surrogate mothers looked on from below.
