Yet another large male orangutan has found himself struggling to survive as a result of recent forest fires.
Jambu was found in a villager’s rambutan plantation, they report that orangutans regularly pass through the plantation on their way back to the forest. But due to the forest fires this year the orangutans have had no forest to go back to so have stayed in the plantation for longer and are eating the fruits yet to be harvested.
Once the villagers made contact with our team we sent our Human Orangutan Conflict team out to investigate the situation. They reported that apart from the villager’s plantation, the orangutan had no other food sources and so required immediate rescue.
On the day of the rescue Jambu was too high for a safe darting, so our team had to encourage him to lower trees. Fortunately he obliged and moved down to a safer height for anaesthetising. After a few minutes the anaesthetic took effect and the nets were prepared. Unfortunately Jambu held on to a branch for slightly longer than expected causing him to swing outside of the net’s reach. Luckily the only injury he sustained was a small cut to his cheek which our vets patched up straight away. Jambu is now at our centre in Ketapang waiting for a suitable release site.
The sight of stranded orangutans, especially large males, is becoming all too familiar for our team in Indonesia and they are working round the clock to rescue as many as they can.