Yahoo – AFP,
February 23, 2017
Seven-month-old Vena was rescued by wildlife officals and environmentalists from someone who had illegally kept her as a pet (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY) |
Baby
primate Vena shyly turned her head away from a bottle as two vets tried to feed
her, the latest Bornean orangutan rescued in Indonesia after being kept as a
pet.
Villagers
on the Indonesian part of jungle-clad Borneo island often keep the critically
endangered apes as pets even though the practice is illegal.
Wildlife
officials and environmentalists rescued seven-month-old Vena earlier in
February from someone in Kendawangan district who had been looking after her.
Vena is now
being cared for at a centre run by NGO International Animal Rescue (IAR), whose
staff ensure she stays clean by regularly changing her diapers and feed her
bottles of milk mixed with vitamin supplements.
Last year
IAR saved 22 orangutans that were either kept as pets or whose natural jungle
habitat had been destroyed by huge forest fires started to clear land for
plantations.
Even when
they are well looked after, such as in Vena's case, environmentalists stress
keeping orangutans as pets is bad because it means they will later struggle to
survive in the wild.
"Many
people don't realise that keeping orangutans as pets is illegal and could make
them lose their instincts for living in the wild," said Ruswanto, an
official from the wildlife protection agency who like many Indonesians goes by
one name.
Villagers
on the Indonesian part of jungle-clad Borneo island often keep
orangutans as
pets even though the practice is illegal (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)
|
Vena was
being kept as a pet by a lady called Bariah, who found the ape in a
neighbouring village. She was rescued after villagers reported the case to
authorities.
It was the
second time Bariah, a mother of seven, was caught illegally caring for a baby
ape -- she already had to give one up to IAR in 2016.
"I
know orangutans are protected, I was not killing or harming them, I was only
taking care of them," the 50-year-old told AFP.
After being
rescued, young apes are sent to a "jungle school", where they spend
years learning to fend for themselves before being released into the wild.
Rampant
logging and the rapid expansion of paper and palm oil operations have reduced
their habitat, with about 100,000 estimated to remain in the wild on Borneo,
which is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The
International Union for the Conservation of Nature last year changed its
classification of the Bornean orangutan from "endangered" to
"critically endangered".
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