The Sumatran orangutan is rarer than the orangutan on Kalimantan island — the only other orangutan species in the world. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)
Wildlife conservation activists have blasted conservation officials in Aceh for not acting sooner to seize an orangutan from a theme park following the death of the endangered primate at a rehabilitation center, Jakarta Globe reported news.
Badrul Irfan, head of the Aceh Orangutan Forum (FORA), said on Thursday that if the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) had taken the 2-year-old orangutan into custody sooner it might have recovered from its illness.
He noted that the BKSDA had first been alerted to the plight of the orangutan, being kept at a theme park in Aceh’s Besar district, by the Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL), or the “Foundation for Sustainable Ecosystem,” on March 26.
However, BKSDA officials only seized the animal from the park on April 23, when it was reportedly in a very poor state of health.
“Why did it take nearly a month for them to rescue the orangutan? It’s no wonder the animal eventually died,” Badrul said.
After recovering the orangutan, the BKSDA submitted it to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, which runs a rehabilitation center for the endangered ape in Sibolangit in North Sumatra’s Deli Serdang district.
The rescued orangutan died there two weeks after the seizure.
Badrul said he hoped the animal’s death would serve as a sober reminder of the need to enforce wildlife protection laws by cracking down on people keeping orangutans and other protected species as pets.
“The law against wildlife poachers, traders and owners is very clear, but it must be enforced,” he said.
“If this is done properly, then we can prevent more tragedies like this.”
Amon Zamora, the Aceh BKSDA chief, said his office had not yet been notified about the orangutan’s death and denied it had been slow to respond to the initial report from YEL.
He said a team had been dispatched to the theme park soon after receiving the report, but eventually decided not to seize the orangutan because “it was too sick to be taken and could have died [from the shock].”
The Sumatran orangutan is rarer than the Kalimantan orangutan — the only other orangutan species.