INDONESIA/BORNEO: Kick-boxing Orangutans arrive in native country as rehabilitation centre in Borneo prepares their long-awaited homecoming

Forty eight orang-utans rescued from a Thai amusement park returned to their homesoil on Wednesday (November 22). The endangered apes cargo arrived in an Indonesian airforce C-130 transport plane at Tjilik Riwut airport of Central Kalimantan province. The reddish-brown primates were welcomed by a group of animal lover and students at the airport. "I am happy that orang-utans have returned, they are very precious" said Tria, one of the students. The smuggled animals were recovered two years after a raid on Bangkok's Safari World theme park, where many of them had to stage mock kick-boxing bouts. Safari World's owners said originally the 115 orang-utan seized by wildlife police were the result of a successful domestic breeding programme, even though DNA tests eventually proved many had been brought illegally from Indonesia. The biggest threat to the orang-utan habitat is hunting and illegal trafficking, turning them into pets. "Naturally we feel satisfied. Even though they are only in small number. We'll keep trying for others to be returned" said Eddy Sutiarto, head of provincial nature conservation agency. The animals were loaded into metal cages in the hold of the camouflaged plane for their trip from a rescue centre in Ratchaburi, 125 km (80 miles) west of Bangkok. The orang-utans had been due to leave Thailand in September, but a military coup against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra scuppered those carefully laid plans. The orang-utans will fly onto the jungles of Borneo island to a rehabilitation centre. Indonesian officials said the apes would spend two months in quarantine before undergoing a two-year rehabilitation programme prior to their release back into the wild. Fewer than 30,000 orang-utan are thought to be left in the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia, and environmentalists say the species could become extinct in 20 years if the current rate of decline continues.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006

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