Surgery to Save Orang Utan
It’s “Harry and the Hendersons” meets “ER.”
A hulking orangutan lies patiently on an Indonesian clinic’s operating table as a staffer gets to work removing metal pellets — fired by a poacher — from the poor primate’s backside.
Exam room … the Orangutan Information Center has cared for over 280 orang-utans rescued from palm oil plantations, poachers and pet owners and over 200 have been reintroduced in the wilds. (Picture: Sutanda Aditya Source: AFP)
The 14-year-old male was rescued Tuesday in northern Sumatra’s Langkat district and taken to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program center in nearby Sibolangit.
Along with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, the center has saved hundreds of the endangered Sumatran orangutans amid a shrinking habitat and a worsening poaching crisis.
Since launching in 1999, it has reintroduced more than 200 into the wild.
Patient … a veterinary staff member conducts medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orang-utan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body. (Picture: Sutanta Aditya Source: AFP)
Their habitats and lives are threatened by growing plantations and poachers
This orangutan was rescued near the Langkat district on April 15 with air gun metal pellets in his body, the victim of a worsening poaching crisis in a country where primate habitats are shrinking due to the land being converted to palm oil plantations.
Indonesia’s ministry of forestry personnel and the Orangutan Information Center have rescued and cared for hundreds of critically-endangered orangutans from palm oil plantations, poachers and pet owners. Over 200 have been reintroduced into the wild.