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Orangutan with 74 pellets in her body in recovery but needs more surgery
Besides Hope, YEL-SOCP is now also taking care of a 3-month-old orangutan named Brenda which was rescued last week by an Indonesian National Military (TNI) soldier from a field in Southwest Aceh.
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A medical team at the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) in North Sumatra treats a female orangutan on March 12. She was found in a critical condition next to her baby in Aceh province. (Courtesy of Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program/FB Page)
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female orangutan found with 74 air rifle pellets in her body in Aceh province earlier this month is recovering although she is blind and has to spend the rest of her life in captivity.
After undergoing a procedure on March 12 in which the vets took out seven pellets, and bone surgery on Mar. 18, her recovery might need another six months and afterward she still has to undergo more surgery to take out the remaining pellets from her body. The bone surgery was to repair her collar bone and air sac, which were ruptured by the pellets.
Suryadi, the communications officer of Lestari Ecosystem Foundation and PanEco Foundation - Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (YEL-SOCP), told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the orangutan was now in an intensive care pen in SOCP quarantine and rehabilitation center in Sibolangit in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra.
“It was a big operation, so it might take 6 months for her to recover. However, she is now totally blind so it is impossible for her to return to the wild even if she can fully recover from the wounds,” Suryadi said.
The orangutan and her one-month-old baby were found in a critical condition on March 10 by a team from the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (KSDA) and the Orangutan Information Center (OIC).
“When she was found, she was already blind,” Suryadi said.
