One of the crucial initiatives undertaken by the Indonesian government to preserve this species is their orangutan repatriation program which brings illegally held captive orangutans abroad back home to Indonesia. The repatriation process itself starts with identifying individual orangutans abroad, then continues on to negotiating with the authorities in the respective countries, and finally carrying out their return to Indonesia.
One of the repatriated orangutans who was entrusted to our rehabilitation centre is Du. Du is a female orangutan who was successfully repatriated from Thailand to Indonesia in 2006, along with 49 other orangutans. At that time, she was over 20 years old and was immediately placed in quarantine before finally joining other orangutans on a pre-release island.
Three years after her return, Du grew pregnant and gave birth to her first child, whom we named Dea. There is no more beautiful relationship than the bond between a mother and her child. This holds true not only for humans but also for orangutans. Du was very skilled at raising her child. Dea herself grew into a quick and intelligent orangutan. As a result, Dea became one of the orangutans released in 2019 in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR). This is undoubtedly a significant achievement in the world of conservation. When an orangutan is not only repatriated but also beats the odds and is fully rehabilitated, they too, contribute to the primary goal of establishing orangutan populations in the wild to support the future of the species.
It did not stop there; Du gave birth to her second child in 2016 on the pre-release island. The child was named Dinda. Now, Dinda has grown into another intelligent, female orangutan and is living independently on Kaja Pre-Release Island. In 2022, Du was again observed carrying her third baby, whom we named Dai. At the same time, her close friend, another repatriated orangutan named Melata, also gave birth to a baby named Dumel. Unfortunately, Melata went missing at the start of 2023, however, Du readily adopted Dumel to raise him alongside Dai.
As a semi-wild habitat, conditions on the pre-release island are unpredictable and opportunities for human intervention are minimal. Once, Dumel was taken by a male orangutan. Fortunately, this did not last long and Dumel was quickly returned to Du’s care. To prevent this from happening again and to ensure the safety of the little babies, our medical team decided to move Du and her two children to the individual complex behind our rehabilitation centre clinic.
As he developed, Dumel was often seen clinging to Du even more so than Dai. It is rare for female orangutans to carry two babies simultaneously. Most of them will only care for the next baby once the previous one is fully independent. This usually requires a period of about six to eight years or even longer.
Du’s journey from her rescue in Thailand to becoming an experienced orangutan mother in Indonesia who has successfully raised four babies is a beacon of hope for the conservation efforts of this remarkable primate. One of her children has been successfully released and we hope the other three will follow in her footsteps. This shows that the repatriation program is indeed an important step in efforts to preserve Indonesia’s iconic species. With the cooperation between the government, non-governmental organisations, and the public, we can ensure that orangutans smuggled abroad can return to their natural habitat and contribute to the balance of Indonesia’s ecosystems.
Text by: PRM Team at Himba Pambelum Monitoring Camp, TNBBBR, Central Kalimantan
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