Orangutan Rescue: On the frontline in Sumatra

The Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit Call Centre service plays a significant role in enabling orangutans and humans to be able to co-exist peacefully. The service connects people in conflict-prone areas to HOCRU teams who can investigate further and provide support. 

Not every call leads to orangutans. Most of the time, the team only finds traces such as nests or broken trees where orangutans have been foraging. Even when an orangutan is found it is not always necessary to perform a rescue. The first thing to do is to monitor the orangutan, and to see the possibility of driving them back into the forest without physical contact. This is exactly what happened at a village in Central Tapanuli recently. The HOCRU Team worked together with the government’s conservation authority, BKSDA, and the local community and drove the orangutan back into protected forest by using loud noises. 

When the team decides to carry out a rescue, the welfare of the orangutan is always their top priority. They have to make sure that they minimise the risks as much as possible, so that the evacuated orangutan is not hurt when it falls down a tree after getting tranquilized and the translocation process moves the orangutan to safer and protected forest. 

In September, the HOCRU Team in Batang Toru rescued an orangutan. It was a joint effort  between BKSDA, Scorpion (another local wildlife organisation), the local community, and the HOCRU Team. Together they managed to evacuate a female orangutan who had found herself in community farmland. Following a physical examination to ensure she was healthy, the orangutan was translocated to an area of protected forest where she could live safely.