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Borneo Rehabilitation Centre
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The Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project is situated 28 km (18 miles) outside of Palangka Raya, the Capital of Central Kalimantan. It is located within the boundaries of the Nyaru Menteng Arboretum, a 62.5 hectare lowland peat-swamp forest ecosystem, founded in 1988 by the Ministry of Forestry Regional Office of Central Kalimantan. The clinic, quarantine facilities and socialization cages are inside a fenced area of 1.5 hectares, while midway housing is at the farthest end of the Arboretum, which has good forest for the smallest orangutans and is undisturbed by visitors.
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Three islands have been acquired for the purpose of penultimate training of the rescued and rehabilitated orangutans before release. Kaja Island, for some 43 of the larger orangutans, is located only eight kilometres away by road. Palas Island contains another 26 orangutans. Bangamat Island, presently home to 13 orangutans, is for larger orangutans that have spent virtually their entire lives in captivity but are now deemed ready and able to cope with life in the forest under supervision.
The project manager is Lone Droscher-Nielsen, a Danish woman who spent 4 years volunteering in Tanjung Puting caring for small infant orangutans, before she and her Dayak husband Odom opened the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Project with the help of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) Indonesia.
The project is funded and managed by BOSF and works in co-operation with The Department of Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam (a department within the Department of Forestry) for Central Kalimantan.
The Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project is currently responsible for rescuing and looking after over 400 orangutans
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Before arriving at Nyaru Menteng the orangutans, including small infants, will often have suffered neglect and abuse at the hands of loggers or plantation workers. Frequently kept in tiny cages and fed inappropriate food, they fail to thrive.
On arrival every orangutan is examined in the medical centre to establish its present state of health. Each is quarantined until such time it receives negative results on tests for diseases such as Tuberculosis, Hepatitis A, B and C, and is free from parasites.
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Looking after rescued orangutans takes an enormous amount of resources. This clinic and operating theatre are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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During the course of a year, orangutans at the centre and on the islands (see below) are fed a variety of over 40 different fruits and vegetables. In one month alone they can consume 8,000 oranges, 44,000 satsumas, 8,000 kilos of bananas, 3,000 pineapples, 2,000 coconuts, 2,000 watermelon, 2,000 papaya, 2500 kg of sweetcorn, and 2000 kg of cucumber, amongst many other food items.
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Once the infant orangutans leave the quarantine area they are gradually introduced to others and encouraged by ‘baby sitters’ (local Dayak women employed and trained to provide 24 hour care) to explore and climb trees. They are taken to the forest behind the centre at 7.00am and brought back at 4.00pm, having spent all day under supervision, climbing trees and generally having fun!
Those orangutans arriving at the centre, which are too big and boisterous for the “forest school”, are cared for in large socialisation cages where they can climb apparatus and build their own nests much as they would in the forest.
Midway House
Once orangutans complete Forest School One, they graduate to Midway House. In this forest, where the trees are bigger, local Dayak men look after the orangutans as they gain further independence and refine their forest skills.They can sleep in the forest if they are able to build satisfactory nests, or they have the option of sleeping in a large group cage.
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Release Update
Up until May 2006 Nyaru Menteng had released 148 orangutans back into secure forests. A growing problem is finding further suitable locations for the final release of rehabilitated orangutans. These must have the resources (trees, natural food, etc.) to support a sizable population of orangutans, are not be threatened with imminent destruction, and be free of a wild population of orangutans. A proposal and survey of a large area in the north of the region, which looks promising, is now underway where rehabilitated orangutans with the proven skills, confidence and independence to survive in the wild will be released. Until then, the closely supervised islands provide the best alternative.
All photos on this page are courtesy of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and Nature Alert who retain the copyright.
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