vehicle with flashing blue lights. “We offer a win–win
solution for both orangutans and humans. In future
people don’t have to break the law, and orangutans
don’t have to be killed.”
RETURN TO FREEDOM
Early the next morning the HOCRU team arrives
at the release site in Gunung Leuser National Park.
Shouldering the 100kg of cage and restless, shifting
orangutan, the four rescuers set off across chest-deep
swamp, slithering, sliding and gasping with effort.
Eventually the cage is placed next to a large tree. The
door is lifted. Immediately the ape is out and up the
trunk, crashing through foliage, a blur of orange-brown
loping into the green canopy above. He utters indignant
baritone grunts, then is gone.
The dedication and professionalism of HOCRU
are extraordinary. It is all the more impressive when
one considers that its potential range of operation
covers nearly 130,000km^2. This responsibility is shared
with the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program
(SOCP), one of several projects founded by PanEco,
a conservation organisation based in Switzerland.
The two groups liaise closely, relying on a mixture of
tip-offs, intelligence and requests from the authorities
to rescue wild orangutans and confiscate those being
kept illegally as pets.
Unless an animal can be relocated to open forest
Above: Ian Singleton and
an orphan at a centre run
by the Sumatran Orangutan
Conservation Program (SOCP)“ WE OFFER A
WIN–WIN
SOLUTION.
PEOPLE DON’T
HAVE TO BREAK
THE LAW, AND
ORANGUTANS
DON’T HAVE TO
BE KILLED”almost straight away, most rescued or confiscated apes
are taken to SOCP’s quarantine centre and veterinary
clinic, half an hour’s drive from Medan, for assessment.
“Since opening in 2001 the centre has accepted more
than 300 apes,” explains Ian Singleton, an expert on
orangutans and SOCP’s director, as he prepares to treat
the latest arrival, 11-year-old Joey. By his side are vets
Yenny Saraswati and Winny Pramesywari.
Singleton, a British ex-pat who used to be a keeper
at Jersey’s Durrell Wildlife Park, has lived in Sumatra
and worked in orangutan conservation for over 20
years, and knows the complex problems facing the
Sumatran orangutan only too well. “More orangutans
need to be confiscated or rescued than ever before:
20- or 30-plus every year. Since 1970, there must have
been at least 2,800 confiscations. But I know of only
three successful prosecutions. There is a total lack of
law enforcement.”
Every animal that passes through the centre has a
heart-rending story. On the white-tiled front porch
of the veterinary clinic, three baby orangutans are
playing on a red climbing frame. One-year-old Bina
Wana begins to wail. The noise translates easily in any
language: “I’m hungry.” His face is wrinkled with
emotion but strangely lop-sided, nostrils barely visible.
Instead of a nose, a scar crosses his face – he was struck
by a machete when his mother was killed by men
clearing the forest.