Brilio.net/en - The giant fires ravaging Borneo and Sumatrain recentyears have grabbed headlines around the world. Thousands of hectaresof peat forestwere lost, and with them the habitat of hundreds of species, includingorangutans.
West Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo is one of the worst-hitareas. It is there that International Animal Rescue opened arehabilitation center forrescued orangutans.
IAR's goal isto help theintelligent and powerful animals readapt to their original way of lifeand eventually set them free once more.
The animals rescued are too young to survive on their ownor have lived their wholelife in captivity, so areunable to sustain themselves in the wild. So, before relocating them in safe areas of protected forest, IAR puts them throughan innovativesystem so they can learn how to cope on the outside.
In the middle of the jungle, wide enclosed plots of land have been fixed up by the IAR to act as "classrooms" for the primates. There,orangutans learn how to nest, find their own food and how to avoid and defend against predators. Once they pass the final exam, a team of vets and IAR workersevaluate if the animal is ready to go back to the jungle or not.
This initiative has taken on extra importancesince the publishing of areport by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which listed the orangutan as Critically Endangered just one step above Extinct in the Wild. The report says that if things continue as they are, orangutans will die out in the wildwithin 50 years.
(brl/red)
