Figure: Baby orangutan Mona, one of the new arrivals
Last month two new orang-utans arrived in our Sintang Orangutan Centre (SOC).
On the 17th of August a sweet and curious looking orangutan named Mona arrived. Mona is a small baby girl of around 9 months old. The previous ‘owner’ comes from a village close to Tembak. He told us that he had found Mona while hunting. He found her all on her own in the forest without her mother. He took her home, but Mona was so skinny that he was afraid she would not survive, so he brought her after 6 days to SOC. Well that is the official version, but we hear such stories all the time. More likely he played a part in the killing of Mona’s mother and when he brought the baby to the village other villagers warned him that it was illegal and that the village had promised to support conservation practices. Any way, in some way it is good that she was voluntarily handed over, in other ways how sad to have lost another reproductive female from the dwindling orang-utan population.
The second small orang-utan arrived on Friday 21st August. A little boy named Aming, between 1 and 2 years old. Aming had been kept illegally for over a month by a family in Nanga Pinoh, a village not far from Sintang. They bought him (not clear from the hunter or a trader), even though they were well aware of the fact that it is illegal to have an orang-utan. Probably after hearing comments from others they became afraid of the legal consequences, and therefore decided to hand Aming over to our orang-utan rehabilitation centre in Sintang. Aming looks quite healthy as far as we can see at first sight. However, he and Mona are getting thorough medical check-ups and will be treated by our capable medical team as needed.
We hope to soon tell you much more about these two little ones; how they are doing health wise as well as psychologically!
Thank you for your support!
The SOC Team
Figure: Baby orangutan Aming, the second new arrival this month
Leave a Reply