Orangutan rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is the process by which orphaned, confiscated or injured orangutans are returned to a life in the wild.  Usually, it starts when Forestry Department officials seize an illegally held orphan (orangutans are protected under law in Indonesia and Malaysia) and transfer he or she to a rehabilitation centre. Depending on the orangutans’ health and age they may require months of hand rearing and nursing. This can often mean 24-hour care. The young orangutans are subsequently given the opportunity to learn how to live in the wild. They are taken out into forests to taste wild fruit and practise climbing and to encounter the sights, sounds and smells they will eventually meet in the wild.  Once they are considered strong, healthy, proficient climbers, can make their own nests and find their own food, they will be moved to protected release sites. After release, rehabilitated orangutans are usually offered food every day at designated feeding sites. This serves two purposes: it allows researchers to monitor the orangutans’ wellbeing (sometimes the only time individuals are seen is at feeding); and it decreases the chance of competition between the rehabilitated orangutans and other wildlife when natural food is scarce. The amount given is only a supplement, however, and it ensures the orangutans stay healthy while still having to search in the forest for their own food. The location of the feeding sites is changed regularly and it must be remembered that, while the feedings at Camp Leakey, for example, provide the best opportunity for short-term visitors to see these elusive apes in their natural environment, they are run principally for the benefit of the orangutans rather than tourists. Conservation or Welfare? A common perception is that orangutan rehabilitation and orangutan conservation are one in the same. This is only partly true. The fundamental basis of orangutan conservation is habitat protection. If deforestation could be stopped so could the need for rehabilitation – as the number of orangutans being brought into care is only a reflection of the rate of habitat loss.  As Dr. Biruté Galdikas, President of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), says “In the final analysis, orangutan rehabilitation has to be seen as a symptom of our failure to get to the underlying cause of the problem.”  While the plight of the orphan orangutans is a welfare crisis, the fact is reintroduced orangutans will not replace a wild population. Originally rehabilitation was seen as a means of law enforcement, and thus as a form of conservation, as it allowed the authorities to confiscate illegally held animals.  However, after more than 40 years of orangutan rehabilitation, the number of orangutans in care is increasing, not decreasing, causing some people to question the efficiency of rehabilitation and whether it is actually helping save the species.  Of course, the issue that underlies rehabilitation is that wild orangutans need to be better protected. Until they are, however, orangutans will continue to be killed and orphans will need to be rescued, so there remains the question of what to do with these animals?  They need to be taken into care – that is welfare.  But rehabilitation can potentially lead to direct conservation gains. Release sites need to be large and secure. Some reserves have been established especially for this purpose, thereby increasing the overall size of the protected area network.