By Helen Buckland | UK Director
Our partners in Sumatra, the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), have pushed a wild male orangutan back to the Gunung Leuser National Park after he was found in a 3,000 hectare oil palm plantation next to our forest restoration site
The orangutan was spotted last week by oil palm plantation staff, and was reported to the OIC’s Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU).
When the HOCRU team arrived at the plantation, they quickly spotted the orangutan sitting at the top of an oil palm tree. However, pushing him out of the plantation and back into the forest was not a simple task – it took more than two hours of firing noise cannons before the orangutan finally moved out of the farmlands and into the edge of our forest restoration site.
Noise cannons are made using a simple bamboo or metal tube, calcium carbide and water to make loud bangs. They pose absolutely no risk to the animals. The team fired the cannons (which do not contain any projectiles) more than 50 times in order to encourage the orangutan to move out of the plantation and into the forest.
Once at the forest edge, they then continued to encourage the orangutan to move deeper into the national park. However, a herd of more than 15 wild elephants passing through the area meant that they had to stop using the noise cannons. The team stayed nearby and observed the orangutan until dusk, by which time the elephants had moved on, and the orangutan swung off into the national park.
Panut Hadisiswoyo, Founder and Director of the OIC, said: “It is crucial that our HOCRU team can quickly respond to orangutan conflict situations in plantation areas. If the big male orangutan had remained in the plantation for much longer, it is likely that he would have starved, or been killed by the plantation workers if he had caused damage to the crops.”
When there are no buffer zones between farmlands and natural forests, it is not surprising that animals such as orangutans and elephants sometimes cross into plantations. They are seen as pests as they can damage crops, and may be captured or killed – there have been reports of four critically endangered Sumatran elephants having been poisoned in oil palm plantations in northern Sumatra this year.
Thanks to your support, we have now restored more than 280 hectares of forest after an illegal oil palm plantation was established inside the national park. Wild orangutans and herds of wild elephants have begun to return to the area, and seven orangutans have been translocated here so far this year after being rescued from small patches of forest that were about to be cleared and converted to oil palm plantations, including three mother and baby pairs.
Thank you for helping us to keep these forests safe. Through our work with the local communities who live next to the national park, as well as helping to restore damaged parts of the ecosystem, they have become guardians of the forests, protecting them for the future. We couldn't do this crucial work without the generous contributions of our supporters - please consider sharing this project with friends, family and colleagues, so that together we can achieve even more. Thank you.
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