VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 2 - The Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) saved three orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) found abandoned in the locals' rubber plantation area and at a village of Kotawaringin Timur District on January 31, 2021.

Two of them were a mother-infant pair, while the other one was a male adult, aged 25, the agency's Sampit post chief, Muriansyah, stated here, Tuesday.

The 20-year-old female adult and her 10-month-old baby were found hunting for food in the plantation area, located on Sampit's Sudirman Road KM 11, while the 25-year-old male adult was found abandoned in Lampuyang Village, Teluk Sampit Sub-district, he remarked.

These tree-living mammals were rescued by BKSDA's workers in collaboration with those from the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), Muriansyah revealed.

BKSDA's team had monitored the whereabouts of the 26-kg mother and her three-kg infant in the rubber plantation area for a week to follow up on the information by locals on the pair before rescuing them.

"The mother-infant pair was rescued from inside a rubber plantation. They reportedly damaged and ate bark of the rubber trees after uneasily looking for food in their habitat," he remarked.

In the meantime, the 25-year-old male orangutan, found ailing from wounds on his head, was saved from a paddy field of Lampuyang Village, he remarked, adding that a person, with a sharp weapon, might have assaulted it.

The wounded orangutan had received medical care. The three orangutans were taken to Pangkalan Bun to be kept under observation before releasing them into their habitat.

"We thank the residents of Sudirman Road KM 11 and those from Lampuyang Village for their sound cooperation with the Central Kalimantan Resources Conservation Agency in this rescue mission," he stated.

ANTARA noted that Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry had been working with its partners in Central Kalimantan Province to rescue and release orangutans into their habitat.

In April 2020, for instance, the Central Kalimantan-based BKSDA and its partners released three orangutans into their natural habitat in the Tanjung Puting National Park in the districts of Kotawaringin Barat and Seruyan.

The released orangutans were named after Cantik, Rimut, and Natalia.

Before being released, they were quarantined and rehabilitated to restore their physical and psychological wellbeing at the Orangutan Care Center Quarantine (OCCQ) after they got embroiled in human-wildlife conflicts. (Antaranews)