T

he Malaysian government has returned two baby orangutans that were allegedly smuggled from Sumatra by a syndicate of wild animal traders few months ago.

The 1-year-old male and female named Citrawan and Bobina, respectively, arrived at Kualanamu International Airport, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, on Tuesday and were directly transported to the orangutan quarantine center in Sibolangit, Deli Serdang, to start the process of being released into their natural habitat.

North Sumatra Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) head John Kenedie, on behalf of the Indonesian government, expressed gratitude to the Malaysian government for their decision to return the baby orangutans to Indonesia.

John said the two orangutans were seized by the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks from four men, two Indonesians and two Malaysians, alleged members of the wild animal trading syndicate on July 24, in Bukit Tinggi, Klang, Malaysia

'€œThe four are still being detained by the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks,'€ John told reporters after picking up the two orangutans at Kualanamu airport on Tuesday.

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) director Ian Singleton who, helped facilitate the return of the baby orangutans, said the animals were due to be sold for 20,000 Malaysian ringgit (US$4,659) each.

He said the case was still being processed in Malaysia under the Wildlife Protection Act.

He said smuggling of Sumatran and Kalimantan orangutans was commonplace, adding that apart from Malaysia, Thailand was also a destination for smuggled Sumatran and Kalimantan orangutans.

The SOCP'€™s investigations have revealed that the number of orangutans smuggled to Thailand is even higher than that of those smuggled to Malaysia. '€œDozens of Indonesian orangutans can now be found in Thailand, 14 of them will be returned to Indonesia,'€ said Singleton, although he was not sure when the 14 orangutans would be returned.

He said the population of Sumatran and Kalimantan orangutans had continued to decline because they were hunted and smuggled abroad. This, he said, was because they fetched a high price, especially babies, which were kept as pets.

Besides the smuggling, the damage to the habitat has also contributed to the declining numbers of the primate.

'€œThe most serious threat to the orangutan population is damage to their habitat, especially in rainforests in lowlands and in forests in peat lands, both from mono-culture oil palm plantation purposes and road development,'€ he said.

Kalimantan orangutans, Singleton said, had been listed in the World Conservation Union'€™s (IUCN) '€œred list'€ of endangered animals, while Sumatran orangutans had been categorized as '€œcritically endangered'€ animals as currently only 6,600 of them were left in the wild.

He said the remaining population of Sumatran orangutans could mostly be found in the Leuser ecosystem region on the border of North Sumatra and Aceh in the northern part of Sumatra.