Report on Smuggled Orangutans in Thailand

[Guest guest]

Report on the visit of the Indonesian team to

Thailand, July 28-30, 2004

 

A team consisting of officials of the Indonesian

Ministry of Forestry, including the directors for

biodiversity conservation and forest protection and

the director of the Indonesian CITES authority, the

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), the

network for Indonesian Animal Rescue Centers, Profauna

and journalists paid an official visit to Bangkok to

discuss the problem of the presence of large numbers

of orangutans that most likely are held illegally in

Thailand. In Bangkok the team was joined by

representatives of the Indonesian embassy in Bangkok

and the Thailand BOS representative Edwin Wiek of the

Wildlife Friends of Thailand animal rescue center.

 

The reason for the visit was the presence of very many

orangutans, of suspected Indonesian wild origins, in

many places in Thailand, but most notably so in a

Bangkok Zoo named Safari World. Indonesia was first

alerted to this problem after reports from Monkey

World’s investigation by Jim and Alison Cronin

surfaced. This set off a legal investigation during

which the Thai Forestry Police found 115 orangutans on

the premises of Safari World under cramped conditions.

Then, after nothing seemed to happen after several

months, Edwin Wiek contacted BOS Indonesia and Dr.

Willie Smits of BOS Indonesia, with support of the

Indonesian Ministry of Forestry went to Thailand to

see the actual situation. After some initial problems

Dr. Smits was able to see the orangutans and his

report to the director of CITES led to the official

request of the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry to deal

with the situation and this official visit to Thailand

of the Indonesian delegation.

 

After the team was met at the airport by

representatives of the Indonesian embassy and Edwin

Wiek, the BOS Thailand representative, a visit was

paid to the department of Natural Resources and the

Forestry police. Albeit the team came under an

official invitation by Mr. Somchai Pienstaporn, the General for National Park, Wildlife and Plant

Conservation Department, there was nobody there to be

met at the departments’ offices. Initially there were

a lot of journalists waiting to see the delegation but

they suddenly left for it was said that a raid was

underway in Safari World. This turned out to be a

hoax, the opposite taking place there with a visit by

a Minister promoting the boxing show, accompanied by

the Director General the team was to visit. The

delegation was not able to obtain certainty about the

availability of the Director General the next day

either from the staff at the Directorate General.

 

General Swake Pinsinchai, who did the original

investigation and discovered the 115 orangutans, was

available and received the delegation and discussions

were held about setting up a joint task force to deal

with the rampant illegal wildlife trade in South East

Asia. He also proposed to hold a press conference the

next day on this subject. After the meeting with

general Swake, Drs. Widodo Ramono of the Ministry of

Forestry, Dr. Willie Smits of BOS and Edwin Wiek as

Indonesian local representative in Thailand, visited

the Ministry of Natural Resources and after

consultations were held with the Minister the

delegation was promised that the next day the director

general would for sure be available himself at 15.00

hours. Then the delegation moved on for a meeting at

the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok before checking into

the hotel.

 

On Thursday morning the team held a preparatory

meeting in the hotel with delegates of the Indonesian

Embassy to discuss the strategy before going to the

press conference. The press conference was very well

attended and there were many questions that had more

to do with the Safari World orangutans then the joint

task force. Some members of the Thai parliament were

present and complained that the situation had not been

dealt with properly and also asked questions why the

centre run by Edwin Wiek, had been raided just before

the visit of the Indonesian delegation? Was it because

Edwin was helping BOS Indonesia that this timing was

set up in this way?

 

Mr. Widodo explained that the delegation was here to

offer support for a joint investigation into the

Safari World orangutans and offered technical

assistance with the identification of the orangutans

and announced that BOS had already for some time now,

made funds available for the DNA testing of those

orangutans in order to prove their origin and the

blood relationships amongst those orangutans. This

should prove beyond any doubt the origins of those

orangutans if this is considered necessary by the Thai

authorities. The delegation also explained that the

doubts raised whether it was technically possible to

proof the origin of the orangutans in Safari World

were unfounded and that with the reference material

available in Indonesia it could be established with

certainty. Also the claim by some officials that this

testing could not take place in Bangkok was unfounded

because BOS had already contacted Katsaert University

that had the staff, expertise and facilities to do the

testing and had already expressed their willingness to

do the testing.

 

Mr. Widodo expressed the explicit wish of Indonesia to

have the orangutans returned to the country of origin

in accordance with CITES regulations. He also reported

that the Ministry of Forestry as the CITES authority

in Indonesia had already brought an official import

permit for the orangutans which he showed. He also

suggested the set up of a special task force to deal

with the enormous wild animal smuggling problem in the

region of Southeast Asia and that amongst others we

needed a number of wildlife crime labs to support this

task force. He also asked if it was possible for the

Indonesian delegation to visit the orangutans in

Safari World which was agreed upon by general Swake.

 

In the afternoon the delegation revisited the

directorate general for National Parks Wildlife and

Plant Conservation Department and eventually met Dr.

Schwann Tunhikorn because the DG himself was still in

an important budget meeting. Thai officials again

posed technical questions about how to identify the

orangutans and other technical issues, all of which

were answered by the delegation. The delegation was

told that it was not possible for the DG to issue

CITES permits yet for the orangutans because they had

not yet been officially confiscated. It would also not

be possible to take hair samples of the orangutans in

Safari World for these would also need CITES permits.

There was no reaction when asked about the orangutans

in the Lopburi Zoo and the Kao Prathapchang Center.

The outcome of this meeting was therefore rather

unclear besides a general support for the idea of the

joint task force.

 

That evening the delegation had a dinner and meeting

with the vice ambassador of Indonesia in Bangkok

during which opportunity a wide range of nature

conservation issues and cooperation was discussed and

the vice ambassador gave his full support to solve the

issue of the orangutans in Thailand in all diplomatic

ways possible.

 

The next day the delegation went back to general Swake

of the forestry police and then moved on to Safari

World where all entered the facilities together with

the general and much police and press. The delegation

was shown the orangutans in Safari World and a press

conference was held. During this visit a joint

inventory was made between representatives of the

Indonesian delegation and the forestry police. It was

learned that of the 115 orangutans that were

registered by the forestry police in November 2003,

only 69 remained!

 

A few days later it was claimed that five other

orangutans were taken from some unknown location

outside Safari World and added to the 69. Later this

story was changed to those five having died. Still

later on July 31st, the people of Safari World claimed

that a hugely contagious pneumonia epidemic killed off

some 41 orangutans in a very short time, obviously an

epidemic more deadly than SARS, while they still

continued shows with orangutans being mixed with all

the others! However on August 13th all of sudden 36

orangutans showed up some of them with 7 together in

small cages behind the boxing show discovered by the

forestry police that had been tipped off about an

orangutan transport. Then on August 19th it was

claimed that three more orangutans had died. On April

10th before the zoo claimed to Dr. Smits that a female

orangutan had died that day while giving birth and

that for that reason admission was refused at that

time (notwithstanding the fact that orangutans were

kept in different localities at the zoo). Mr. Pin

reported that it was all a “misunderstanding”.

Confusing is also that so many different numbers are

used all the time, but on November 22nd, 2003 the

forestry police did encounter originally 115

orangutans with 101 young ones amongst them.

 

After the joint operation in Safari World the

delegation returned to the airport and went back to

Indonesia. There is no certainty yet that the Safari

World orangutans (and many others) will be returned,

but general Swake expressed his sincere wish to have

them returned to Indonesia as soon as possible. He

also had the boxing show closed immediately. The

Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, through Drs. Widodo,

director of CITES has invited the Thai Forestry police

to visit Indonesia for some training on how to

identify the individual orangutans from photographic

records from the original first raid and to see how

the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry will reintroduce

the orangutans to the wild through the official

cooperation with the Borneo Orangutan Survival

Foundation. A letter is being sent by the Indonesian

Minister of Forestry to his colleague the Minister of

Foreign Affairs

 

(In the mean time Monkey World and BOS have set up a

fund to raise support to return the smuggled

orangutans in south East Asia back to their forests

and Monkey World has already donated the first 100.000

Pounds for this fund, which was acknowledged with

gratitude by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry).

 

Beneath details will be reported on the condition of

the orangutans as reported by Dr. Willie Smits of the

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and Dr Faustina

from the CITES Bureau under the Indonesian Ministry of

Forestry. They both assisted the Thai forestry police

during the checking of all the orangutans claimed to

be present in Safari World at the time of checking.

 

 

Findings with regard to the orangutans in Safari World

 

A total of only 69 out of 115 orangutans were

encountered. There were two locations with orangutans

in the zoo, the first one was the same one as

described by Dr. Willie Smits in his April report but

it turned out that inside the kitchen building many

more primates were locked in tiny cages, including

young chimpanzees, that had not been shown during the

first visit despite at that time claims by Safari

World that they had shown everything there was to be

seen. Then it turned out that indeed the area to the

left of the orangutan boxing show held many less

favourable cages with another 21 orangutans in them.

As before the owner of Safari World still claimed that

they had been breeding the orangutans there and had

already done this for more than 20 years. He also

mentioned that they had 7 births every year. Here we

will analyze these statements in the light of the

evidence collected.

 

First of all in 1989 and probably even later there

were NO orangutans in Safari World so the claim of 20

years of breeding is not true. Also the statement that

the boxing show has been going on for 20 years is not

true.

 

There were 48 female orangutans present compared to 21

male orangutans, or 70% females and only 30% males.

There is no way that this sex ratio can be explained

from whatever begin situation through natural births.

In the trade it is actually the opposite that slightly

more males are sold then females that tend to have a

slightly lower survival potential after been taken

from their mothers, also being lighter than similar

aged males. Also there is a tendency for about 55%

males to be born to 45% females. Male orangutans are

very hard to handle and to work with when they become

adults. If a commercial operation would be the goal,

one would try to get more difficult to obtain females

selectively. The present situation in Safari World

would indicate exactly such a commercial approach.

 

If we look at the young orangutans encountered only

(there were 35 very young individuals up till the age

of four years) the situation is even more extreme,

with 28 females and only 7 males, representing a sex

ratio of 1:4, or 80% of the young orangutans being

female!! The chances of this being a coincidence and

the result of breeding are almost zero (Binomal Test,

p<0.001)!

 

Analysis of a favourable breeding scenario. If we try

to calculate what the maximum number of orangutans

could have been under perfect conditions, meaning no

deaths, no miscarriages, every time on time

pregnancies, immediate reproduction of very young

females bred in the group itself, starting off the

breeding program with relatively older females and

males and at the same time assuming that they already

had these orangutans in 1990 with two thirds of the

orangutans being female and that they started off with

18 legal orangutans (the highest number we heard was

14 legal orangutans at one time, but we have not yet

seen records where even those 14 originally came from

on a legal basis) we still get some incredible numbers

and discrepancies with regard to numbers and age

distribution of the orangutans present in Safari World

compared to the actual situation.

 

Orangutans give birth to only one baby at a time. The

number of twin births recorded from thousands of

births in the entire world is probably less than 10.

So in this scenario only single births are used.

Babies need to stay with their mothers for at least

1.5 years before they can cope somewhat by themselves,

unless they are hand raised needing around the clock

care. BOS Indonesia has more than 100 baby sitters for

the very young orangutans and very extensive care

facilities especially for infant orangutans, Safari

World had NO nursery facilities. During the inspection

only one young female with a less than one year old

male baby was encountered and this mother and child

both suffered from a serious skin condition. In

addition there was only one other pregnant female

orangutan. There were no other recently born babies,

only the claim that during the April visit of Dr.

Smits one mother died in the process of giving birth.

So taking the very optimistic scenario of babies only

staying 1.5 years with the mother, than being removed

forcibly so as to enable the females to become

pregnant again after a few months, and taking into

account an almost nine months pregnancy one gets a

birth interval of 2.5 years for the most ideal

condition.

 

There were 31 orangutan babies in the age range of 2-4

years. With a birth interval of 2.5 years this means

that there should be 31 females of 9 years or older!

We only found 3 during the inspection!

 

Furthermore assuming that the newborn female babies

will start producing off spring at the age of nine

years themselves and that again everything runs

perfect we can now calculate that in 2003 when an

actual number of 115 orangutans was counted in Safari

World only 72 could have been present under this more

than ideal scenario, a far cry from the actual

situation. There is no theoretical way in which the

number of 115 orangutans can be explained to be

legally there in Safari World!

 

If we look at the age distribution under the above

perfect scenario and the age distribution observed

during the inspection we get the results as shown in

the graphic below. We can see that series 1 represents

the age distribution when breeding would be taking

place and the perfect scenario outlined above would be

achieved. But Series 2 shows that instead of many old

orangutans in the first scenario the actual age

distribution is exactly the opposite, with many young

orangutans and almost no adult orangutans. Again the

conclusion can only be that there is no way that this

age distribution can be explained in any theoretical

realistic way. Clearly those orangutans are not the

result of a professional and successful breeding

program.

 

 

Figure 1: Age distribution of the orangutans present

at Safari World (Series 2) and according an ideal

breeding scheme with no losses at all from 1990 till

2003 starting with 18 orangutans. Note the reverse

trend between the two series indicating that the

orangutans cannot possibly have been bred at Safari

World.

 

The sex ratio to be expected from the above sketched

ideal breeding program starting off with 12 females

should be 39 females against 33 males or 54% females

maximum and 46% males. Needless again to say that the

70 to 30% ratio present cannot be explained with legal

happenings. Also there could only have been under the

ideal scenario some 46 orangutans younger than 6 years

while on November 22, 2003 there were more than 100

individuals younger than 6 years! All of the claims

and efforts to raise but a spectre of doubt that they

could be legally there in Safari World therefore are

unfounded.

 

Looking at the facilities and the health condition of

the orangutans encountered more disturbing facts come

to the surface. Most of the orangutans were placed in

very small cages with insufficient barriers between

them. Orangutans were moved between the facilities

regularly. There were no mats for cleaning feet coming

inside, none of the workers wore masks, and there were

no isolation cages. All the conditions for the spread

contagious diseases are there. We noted not only skin

disease, but also some orangutans with open Herpes,

three with serious neurological disturbances, and

there were some physical indications that maybe up to

ten of the orangutans could be suffering from

Hepatitis B or C.

 

Now Safari World claims that some 41 orangutans all

died from pneumonia in a very short period of time

just previous to the visit of the Indonesian

delegation. But there were no signs of pneumonia with

the remaining orangutans. It also seems very unlikely

that such an enormous event would not be reported and

extreme quarantine measures taken, and that all the

corpses would be destroyed without any samples being

taken or autopsies done. It would be even more

unlikely that under the occurrence of such a disaster

none of the boxing orangutans would have been involved

and that they would continue mixing orangutans between

facilities and other orangutans. In the mean time it

is clear that this claim was another

“misunderstanding”.

 

The condition of the orangutans, especially the ones

near the boxing show was rather stressed. Several

young orangutans showed wild behaviour like kiss

squeaks and extreme agitation as we normally detect

with the wild orangutans that BOS has rescued from oil

palm plantations. Most of the orangutans had tiny

cages with no enrichment. The orangutans in the

kitchen building were worst off. Adult male orangutans

were locked in tiny stainless steel cages inside a

poorly ventilated and dark building. They did not have

room to stand or to even lay down stretched in these

tiny cages without enrichment. These males and a

number of chimpanzees were not seen last time so it is

most likely that they are always locked inside these

terrible conditions.

 

Some 60 orangutans were from central Kalimantan (Pongo

pygmaeus wurmbii), south of the Kapuas river, while

six of them belonged to the dark orangutans from East

Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus morio). Two looked like Pongo

pygmaeus pygmaeus while one could be a hybrid. If all

orangutans were the result of breeding there should be

many hybrids between the since recent recognized three

Borneo subspecies.

 

We took pictures of all 69 individual orangutans.

These pictures are a very strong proof for

identification, especially for young orangutans that

still have the typical dark patches of skin on their

bellies and arms and legs. Each of those patterns is

unique like a fingerprint. Also with some orangutans

we could record the black patches on the gums which

remain the same for the lifetime of the orangutans.

Other identifying features from the face are the shape

of the teeth, the nose and the ears and especially the

eyes which have very variable irises that stand out

with flash pictures. Other features that are useful in

positive identification of individuals from pictures

are the facial colour patterns, the presence and shape

and colour of facial hair, the angle between the two

lines drawn from the middle of the nose towards the

pupils, the angle under which the eyes are placed

themselves, the presence of scars and dimensions of

the body and head such as the ratio between the length

of the upper arm and lower arm.

 

At this moment a total inventory is being made of

these pictures and comparisons made with some of the

orangutans that were in the pictures originally taken

by the forestry police in November 2003. Two teams

from Indonesia went to visit the Safari world park

just across the border in Cambodia at the casino

there. The secrecy was enormous and team members were

not allowed to film or take pictures of the many

orangutans there for various reasons like it would

scare the orangutans. The teams mailed their films

safely out of the country while other photographers

had their exposed films taken from their luggage on

crossing the border! There was every indication that a

lot was being hidden in the large building behind the

orangutan boxing stage. If we can show some of these

Cambodian orangutans in this facility, that is said to

be owned by Safari World as well, to come from the

orangutans originally seen in Bangkok during the

November 2003 raid, it would represent proof that the

claims of Safari World Director Pin Kewkacha that 41

orangutans died only recently are false and that those

orangutans were moved freely between countries. The

Thai forestry police will be invited to come to

Indonesia to work with the Indonesian experts on this

matter.

 

 

Other orangutans in Thailand

 

Besides Safari World there are many other Zoos and

entertainment places that have orangutans in Thailand.

In Phuket orangutans were used for taking pictures

with visitors. In the Lopburi Zoo there are five

confiscated orangutans and in the Kao Prathapchang

center there were three orangutans left after one

died. Many other places have orangutans as well. Two

Indonesian teams filmed up to 13 orangutans in the

Safari World facility just across the border with

Cambodia.

 

Kao Prathapchang Center

 

On April 10, 2004 Dr. Willie Smits visited the

Prathapchang forestry wildlife breeding center run by

Mr Pornchai. At the center he looked at three

confiscated orangutan babies. One Bornean female,

about 2 years old, named Joy, was in a cage by

herself. She looked physically very healthy was active

and did not look stressed. She had been confiscated

together with a small male that however had died five

days after arrival at the center. The surviving female

looks like a Pongo pygmaeus morio, the black orangutan

from East-Kalimantan. In another cage were two female

Bornean orangutans from Central Kalimantan, one about

3 years old, the other two years and three months. The

older one was kiss squeaking a lot and showed all the

behaviours of a recently wild caught orangutan baby.

These two orangutans were confiscated from a chicken

farm and had probably been released during a police

raid on the neighbouring facility that had more than

one thousand illegal birds, amongst which many (500!)

Sulfur crested Cockatoos, and some other parrots,

probably also from Indonesia. They must have wandered

off to the chicken farm where they were found two

weeks later.

 

These three orangutans and the five orangutans in

Lopburi Zoo have all gone through the legal process

and could have been send back to Indonesia for a long

time already but Thailand has not done so yet. During

a demonstration by Profauna, BOS and the network of

Indonesian animal rescue centers at the Thai Embassy

in Jakarta members of Profauna and the press were

invited in to speak with the Thai Ambassador. The

ambassador stated that the prime minister of Thailand

had now banned the orangutan boxing show and that only

when the DNA test had shown that these orangutans in

Safari World were from Indonesia they would be send

back to Indonesia. He also stated that the Indonesian

government had made no official complaint about the

orangutans, so why would the Indonesian NGO’s care.

 

 

Conclusions

 

All indications are that there is a case of systematic

lying taking place and that almost all the orangutans

have come from the wild in Indonesia. The Borneo

Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), the network of

Indonesian Animal Rescue Centers and Profauna

Indonesia therefore requested the Thai government to

immediately return the orangutans to Indonesia where

additional research will provide all details on the

origins and relationships of those orangutans. Under

CITES it is allowed to send the confiscated animals to

any rescue station, be it in Thailand or Indonesia.

With the situation as outlined above they should go to

Indonesia.

 

With Monkey World having guaranteed the financial back

up we can guarantee that the orangutans will get the

best possible care immediately. BOS has already

contacted Katsaert University, which has said it has

the staff, facilities and willingness to do the DNA

testing and BOS has already made available funds for

this. But BOS wants the process to be transparent, not

just transfer the funds to the Department of National

Parks in Thailand and leave it all to them. BOS wants

to make available other experience with DNA testing of

orangutans to assist Katsaert University.

 

In view of the unclear presence of orangutans in

Cambodia in another facility of Safari World and the

highly unlikely continuously changing stories like 41

orangutans dying in a very short period of pneumonia

having it changed to five dying and on August 19th

reporting three additional deaths, it is recommended

to ensure nothing else can go wrong and we offer to

send our medical staff that is very experienced with

orangutans to help the Thai forestry police. The

animal rescue centers in Thailand are not very well

equipped to deal with such large numbers of orangutans

while Indonesia has more than sufficient capacity.

 

There can be only one conclusion, whatever way one

looks at it. The orangutans should go back to

Indonesia immediately. The Indonesian side is willing

to take whatever steps needed to support this.

Thailand has a chance to show real goodwill by having

them send to Indonesia first while awaiting the

outcome of the follow up checks and send the other

“non-problematic” confiscated orangutans back

immediately. The check on the orangutans in Thailand

should also be extended to all orangutans present in

the many different locations in Thailand to find out

their origins as well for obviously the smuggling

network is huge in south East Asia. Many orangutans

are also showing up in Malaysian hotels and resorts,

in Vietnam, Cambodia and many other countries like the

Philippines and Kuwait.

 

In view of the rampant problem of animal smuggling in

the region the proposal by the Indonesian Ministry of

Forestry to establish a joint task force to deal with

the problem should be followed up and supported by

other organizations as well.

 

Indonesia should also investigate ongoing practices

with orangutan shows in Indonesia immediately. It is

still unclear for instance how the Ancol recreation

park was able to acquire 13 orangutans for shows

legally and they are continuing to perform boxing

shows with orangutans in Jakarta until today. The

upcoming micro chipping and database program of the

Indonesian Ministry of Forestry will provide a good

first step and opportunity to get a grip on the

illegal wildlife issues.

 

Dr. Willie Smits

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

 

 

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