Nature Alert: Malaysian resort preps orangutans for the wild

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Malaysian resort preps orangutans for the wild

Tue Mar 10, 2009

By Varsha Tickoo

BUKIT MERAH, Malaysia (Reuters Life!) - Deepa peeks out from a gunny sack while Fatt Fatt swings from grills as visitors watch the young orangutans at a Malaysian resort that is also trying to increase the population of the endangered species.

Orang Utan Island, a 35-acre island part of Bukit Merah Laketown Resort in Perak state, is a tourist attraction and conservation center that is home to 23 orangutans which resort officials say will eventually be released into the wild.

But some animal welfare experts have criticized the concept, saying rearing the animals outside their natural habitat, and separating the young from their mothers, is just wrong.

"I don't believe the orangutan should be kept in isolated places, like a penal island," said Malaysian Nature Society senior member Neal Nirmal Ariyapala.

"I want to know ... how successful the Orang Utan sanctuary in Bukit Merah is. Bukit Merah is a commercial enterprise and I think money takes precedence more than environmental concern."

Orangutans, a great ape species native to Malaysia and Indonesia, are highly endangered due to destruction of their rainforest habitats and poaching.

They are not endemic to western Malaysia, where Bukit Merah is located, but roam free in the eastern states of Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo island.

There are several orangutan conservation programs in Malaysia and at Orang Utan island, five acres are used for the project that started in 1999 with three animals brought in from their native Sarawak.

"We have a specially designed rehabilitation program. Only then will we release them to the wild," said resident veterinarian Dr. Sabapathy Dharmalingam, adding it may take roughly five to six years.

A short boat ride takes visitors from the Bukit Merah resort to the island, where baby orangutans sleep in cribs, clutching dolls and wearing diapers just like human babies, with medical attention from a team of 20.

Adult orangutans spend their time in the forest outside, observed by visitors from an enclosed pathway.

Twelve orangutan have been born on the island and are healthy, according to Dr. Sabapathy, but the time of their release has not been fixed so far and there is no guarantee the return to the wild will be smooth.

This is one of several concerns voiced by conservationists.

"Rehabilitation and tourism don't mix," Helen Buckland of the Sumatran Orangutan Society told Reuters.

"In many documented cases, there is a strong probable disease transmission link between humans and primates."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE52921820090310

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.