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Four baby orangutans await foster parents
The Jakarta Post | Sun, 05/03/2009 7:47 PM | Life
Four baby orangutans at the Taman Safari Indonesia II Zoo in Pasuruan, East Java are waiting for foster parents to help them develop.Zoo manager Michael Sumampau said on Sunday that anyone could be a foster parent to the cubs.
“The baby Kalimantan orangutans, which are around two to seven months old, are currently being taken care of in the zoo's animal hospital,” he said, as reported by Antara state news agency.
Michael said by becoming a foster parent one will have the honor of naming the chosen baby and of visiting it at any time at the zoo.
“Foster parents will also have responsibilities, including that of donating Rp 3 million (US$ 282) once every three months to the conservation fund,” he said.
The zoo had separated the cubs from their mothers to speed up the growth of the orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) population.
“By doing so however, the costs for nursing the orangutan babies increase, which is why we need foster parents for them,” he said.
Environmentalists reported the population of Kalimantan orangutans in the wild was only around 54,000 in 2004 and warned that if no measures were taken to protect the animals, they would face extinction by 2015. There have been efforts to protect the orangutan species in the country since 1931. (adh)
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Leo Hulsker (not verified) — Fri, 06/12/2009 - 6:04pm
I would just like to say that I for 100% agree with Shirley McGreal`s comments on this one.
Carol Ritchie (not verified) — Wed, 05/27/2009 - 9:30pm
Both of the comments submitted to date are beautifully written and reflect my reaction to the planned fostering of baby orangutans, and I'm sure the reaction of anyone who truly cares about these primates. They need and deserve all the help we can give them in preserving their habitat and that, in turn, will preserve their natural order of bearing and raising their offspring. That is where action should be focused before it's too late.
Dave Weidman (not verified) — Wed, 05/06/2009 - 12:26pm
I find the article about the Taman Safari Zoo seeking adoptive parents for four baby orangutans very troubling and sad. There are enough orphaned baby orangutans in rescue and rehabilitation centers without the zoo artificially creating four more orphans.
Orangutans share 97.5% of the same genes that humans have. Unfortunately they lack the ability to speak a language that humans can understand, but it is well known that female orangutans and their babies share the same intense bond that human mothers and babies have for one another. As in humans; the forced seperation of a mother from her baby causes a great deal of anguish, sense of loss, pain, longing and depression for both.
An orangutan baby nursing from its mother gains, from her milk, a resistance to various illnesses and diseases that can not be gained being raised by humans. The intense bond between an orangutan and her baby lasts approximately 8 years during which the mother teaches her baby invaluable lessons on surviving in the rainforest. Where to find food and when, what is safe to eat and what isn't safe, what branches will hold their weight and which ones won't, how to make a nest and how to react to and socialize with other orangutans are just a few of life's lessons that a mother orangutan teaches her baby. Humans make a very poor substitute for an orangutan mother, her love, attention and training. The zoo manager states that the baby orangutans have been seperated from their mothers "to speed up the growth of the orangutan population." Orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centers are already overflowing with orphaned orangutans and orangutans ready to be released back into the rainforest but with no place to release them so I see little purpose and little to gain from intentionally creating yet four more artificial orphans.
The reason orangutans are endangered isn't because of a breeding problem, but rather one of habitation loss. Speeding up the growth of the orangutan population as the Taman Safari Zoo would have us believe they are doing does nothing but contribute to the problem of more orangutans than there is places for them to live in the wild. The zoo would do better to work towards saving the remaining rainforest if they truly want to save the endangered orangutan who is endangered because of the actions of humans, not because of a lack of breeding. The baby orangutans should be returned to their real mothers as soon as possible, not "adopted" by humans who will give them nothing that their own mothers can give them! Like human mothers, the orangutan mothers will recognize their own baby and be happy to have them back and yes, orangutans do feel and show happiness along with all the other emotions we humans feel!
Dr. Shirley McGreal (not verified) — Mon, 05/04/2009 - 12:14am
Dear Editor and readers of the Jakarta Post, it was heart-breaking to read that, "Four baby orangutans at the Taman Safari Indonesia II Zoo in Pasuruan, East Java are waiting for foster parents to help them develop" and that, "The zoo had separated the cubs [babies] from their mothers to speed up the growth of the orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) population." Separating baby orangutans from their mothers is unacceptable as these animals learn everything from their mothers and stay with them for many years. Human-reared orangutans are often neurotic and poor candidates for rehabilitation to the wild. Plus Indonesia's "wild" is shrinking so where will they go? I appeal to Taman Safari to stop this cruel practise and to wildlife authorities to use their influence to make sure that wild animal babies remain with their parents unless there is a critical reason, such as illness, to separate them. Allowing human "adopters" access to these babies will surely make them neurotic and could expose them to human diseases. Dr. Shirley McGreal, OBE, Chairwoman, International Primate Protection League