wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  The Star 21 Dec 06
Endangered Handsome going home

 The New Straits Times 14 Dec 06
Rare orang utan returns home
Sim Bak Heng
Thanks to alert from Loretta Ann Soosayraj

JOHOR BARU: International pressure is off Malaysia after a rare orang utan was finally sent back to its country of origin - Sumatra.

The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) remained tight-lipped on the date and from which port the protected species was sent back to Indonesia. However, a Malacca Zoo spokesperson said the orang utan was returned to Sumatra recently.

It is learnt that the orang utan had been with Johor Zoo for over 10 years. The department was under pressure from Britain-based Nature Alert Ltd, an organisation dedicated to promoting public awareness about rainforests, which had accused Malaysia of delaying attempts to send the orang utan back to Sumatra.

Johor Perhilitan director Abdul Razak Majid said the orang utan, which was caught in the middle of a tussle between Johor Zoo and Johor Perhilitan, was sent to Malacca Zoo for quarantine two months ago.

This was to ensure it was free from disease and was physically healthy before being released to its natural habitat in the Sumatran forest, he added. "It was sent to Malacca Zoo as the zoo is owned by Perhilitan. We have always wanted the Johor Zoo to surrender the animal and it finally delivered the animal to the Malacca Zoo.

"It was not sent there as an exhibit for visitors but only for quarantine purposes," he said in an interview.

The department wanted Johor Zoo to surrender the orang utan so that it could be released in the Sumatran forest but the zoo ignored the request until two months ago.

The orang utan belongs to the Pongo pygmaeus abelii species, which is classified as critically endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) 1973.

Under the convention, it is forbidden to trade in protected species, and keepers of such animals are required to send them back to the country of origin.

It is believed that the disputed orang utan is the only one left of a batch of seven that was smuggled from the Sumatran forest to Johor. It is howewer not known when or how they ended up here. The other six are believed to have been sent back to Sumatra early this year.

Malaysia is among several Southeast Asian countries criticised by international groups for alleged violation of the Cites convention, of which it is a signatory.

Criticism was levelled at Malaysia after it was reported that orang utans caught from their natural habitat were being held captive for commercial purposes.

The Star 21 Dec 06
Endangered Handsome going home

MALACCA: Handsome, the last Sumatran orang utan remaining in Malaysia, will board a flight back to Indonesia today.

The male 15-year-old weighing some 70kg had been confirmed to be of the Pondo abelii specie endemic to the island of Sumatra. Six of its species had been sent home last year under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) Protocol.

“Malaysia is complying with the protocol, and all animals brought in illegally would be sent back to their country of origin,” said Malacca Zoo director Mohd Nawayai Yasak.

The decision to return the primates listed as critically-endangered to Indonesia was the result of a peninsula-wide DNA fingerprinting exercise by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

In Jakarta, Handsome would be received by officers of the Forest Protection and Conservation Department of Indonesia. Handsome was sedated and placed into a container measuring 1.3m x1.3mx1.6m before leaving the zoo at 2pm yesterday. It would overnight at the animal hotel at KLIA before being put on the flight to Jakarta.

Handsome had been kept at Johor Zoo for several years.
links
Related articles on Primates
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com