Thai authorities sent two orangutans back to Indonesia on Friday as a part of a concerted effort to combat the illegal wildlife trade.
Cola, a 10-year-old female, and Giant, a 7-year-old male, were transported from wildlife reserves within the western province of Ratchaburi to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, where they were placed on a plane to Jakarta.
According to Thailand’s Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Giant was smuggled into Thailand in 2014, and Cola was born in a breeding center to 2 smuggled orangutans who were sent back to Indonesia several years ago. Police found Giant after they stopped and searched a bus heading from the southern border to Bangkok, he added.
The agency said sixty-seven orangutans were returned to Indonesia in three previous batches, and more are expected to return next 12 months.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species – CITES – prohibits international trade in orangutans. They are found only within the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, but their habitat is shrinking as a consequence of increased agricultural land use, making them more vulnerable to poaching. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s authority on the state of the natural world, considers orangutans to be critically endangered.
Orangutans are sometimes sold into the pet trade and for display in zoos and other attractions.
“The return of those orangutans will send a really strong signal to criminals accountable for smuggling animals between countries that each governments will take decisive motion,” said Indonesian diplomat Dicky Komar in the course of the animal handover ceremony on the airport.
Coke might be sent to a wildlife rehabilitation center in East Kalimantan, while Giant will remain at an animal facility in Sumatra. Giant has to spend the remaining of his life in a nursery as a consequence of the amputation of his hands, which makes it difficult for him to operate independently. Vets performed surgery to avoid wasting his life after he was bitten by rabid monkeys. Officials say there’s a superb likelihood that Coke might be released.
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