Suggled Orangutans Arrive in Indonesia

[Guest guest]

I hope they don't start punching the other orangutans!

 

Jo

 

By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 37 minutes ago

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Dozens of orangutans trained to box each other

in a Thai amusement park returned home Wednesday to start a new life

in a jungle reserve on their native island of Borneo, officials said.

 

The 48 orangutans were flown to the capital, Jakarta, on board an

Indonesian military transport plane and welcomed at the airport by

the wife of Indonesia's president.

 

" We are very happy to get the orangutans back, " Kristiani Yudhoyono

said at a ceremony. " They belong to our vast nation, therefore we

have to take them back to their habitat in a proper way. "

 

The orangutans' plight has highlighted Southeast Asia's thriving

black-market animal and plant trade, which officials say generates

some $10 billion in revenue each year — behind only the illicit arms

and the drug trades.

 

While much of the animal trade goes on behind closed doors, many

markets across the region sell rare or endangered animals, from

parrots to black bears to gibbons that often end up in safari parks

or circuses.

 

The animals were seized from the private Safari World zoo near

Bangkok in August 2004 and have since been kept in a wildlife

breeding center. Five other Indonesian orangutans taken from the zoo

remained in Thailand for medical treatment, said forestry ministry

official Mashyud, who uses a single name, like many Indonesians.

 

Southeast Asia's Sumatra and Borneo islands are the orangutans' last

homes, and environmentalists say the estimated 60,000 animals

remaining could disappear from the wild within the next decade.

 

The rescued orangutans were due to fly to a rehabilitation center and

wildlife reserve on Borneo, said Aldrianto Priadjati, an orangutan

conservationist who helped organize the homecoming.

 

He said the animals were in good condition, but will need medical

tests and will have to be kept in cages at the center for about a

month.

 

" Our struggle has not finished yet, " he said. " Their return is only

the first step. "

 

The orangutans were to have been repatriated Sept. 23 but the

generals who staged a military coup against the Thai government of

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra refused to allow a foreign military

airplane to land in Thailand at that time.