Orangutan orphans

I believe Kesi is at the end of this video:

What will you tell your children when the orangutans are extinct?  Watch this video.

The following video has some wonderful shots of orangutans.  It is informative but also entertaining:

Adorable orphans at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Borneo

Breakfast!

www.OrangUtanRepublik.org

Orangutan orphanage in the rainforest at Sepilok in eastern Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo in October 2002.

Retired Movie Star – Geri the Orangutan

  Geri was born September 13, 1989 to be a movie star.  But like all other orangutans in the movie business she soon became to big to work with and at age 15 she was fortunate enough to find a home at the Center for Great Apes which was founded in 1993 by Patti Ragan.

Geri was worked in many commercials and films such as The Flintstones until her retirement and her eventual move to the Center for Great Apes in Florida in December 2004.  I say she was worked, not that she worked, because when you work you normally are paid for your time.  Geri was never paid for her time and even now does not get any support from her previous owners that exploited her when she was a baby.

She was fortunate in the fact that she came to the sanctuary with a good friend, Sammy.  Her and Sammy’s baby, Jam, was snatched from her as soon as he was born to be used in the entertainment industry also.  Thankfully, Jam came to live at the same sanctuary just 4 months after she arrived.  She and Jam were introduced to each other gradually and eventually reunited.

Now Geri has the comfort and companionship of all the orangutans at the center (14 in all at this time) as she roams through the tunnels that connect her to the other orangutans enclosures and to the large 34 feet high domed habitat.  While traveling through the tunnels she is able to not only observe and interact with other orangutans but she also can browse like wild orangutans do in the rainforest.

  The Boswell Walk-About Chute System.

  Huge 34 feet high domed habitat–large enough for adult orangutans to swing and play.

Geri is very observant and always thinking.  She is very relaxed and enjoys both playing by herself or with the other apes.

The orangutans at the center receive at least 3 enrichment items a day to keep their curious minds busy.  And one of Geri’s favorite enrichment times is when they are given old clothes to play with and she can put on gardening gloves.

  Geri must agree that cleanlinest is next to godliness because she loves to clean.  She is very concerned about having a clean home and gathers her dishes, washes them and hands them and her blankets to the caregivers.

Geri can never be released into the wild like the orangutans on Orangutan Island, but Patti and the rest of the staff at the Center for Great Apes are giving her the best living arrangements possible for the rest of her life where she will never be bred or observed by the general public as an attraction.

Why not let Geri know how much you love her by sending a donation to the Center for Great Apes?  They accept enrichment items and have a Wish List you can use to decide what to donate.  Of course, they will always accept monetary donations also. 

  Geri would like to encourage you to send some gardening gloves!

Kind Regards,

April and Kesi

Not So Fun Facts About Orangutans

Not so Fun Facts:

Every minute, every day an area equal to six football fields of Indonesian forest disappears. 

Orangutans in the entertainment industry do not have social security or pensions to fall back on when they have to retire.  Their former trainers and owners do not provide for their needs once they are too old to bring in money.

Since small orangutans are easier to handle in the entertainment industry they keep breeding orangutans in captivity in order to keep the supply of babies available.  After taking them from their mother and using them for our entertainment the orangutans are then set aside when they become to large to handle usually kept in cages too small for them.  

Orangutans used in the entertainment industry are torn from their mothers when born, kept in small cages on the set with nothing to entertain them for enrichment of their lives but forced to perform and “entertain” people many times a day.  Their former owners regrettably do not provide them retirement income when they become to large to handle and are turned over to the Center for Great Apes sanctuary in Florida.

Approximately 1 out of 6 orphaned orangutans are fortunate enough to be rescued.

Nearly 1,000 orphaned orangutans are in rescue and rehabilitation centers.

Just like humans, orangutans can catch malaria from mosquitoes and even die from the disease.

Orangutans have lost approximately 80% of their habitat in the last 20 years.

Approximately 1/3 of the wild population of orangutans died during the fires of 1997 and 1998.

There were about 20,000 orangutans in Borneo in 1996 and there are approximately 12,000 to 15,000 orangutans in Borneo now with approximately 4,000 to 6,000 in Sumatra at this time.

If this rate of decline continues orangutans in the wild will be extinct in approximately 10 years.

The human population of Indonesia has grown from 10 million people at the beginning of the century to over 200 million people at this time.
 

When creating plantations it is common to first burn the land. These fires often spread uncontrollably and orangutans are burned to death having no chance to escape.

Poachers sell infant orangutans as exotic pets.

These baby orangutans are often placed outdoors in small wooden cages or chained to poles where they are exposed to the elements such as wind, rain and sun.

Poachers eat and sell the flesh of adult orangutans.

Illegal logging and fires are making the native habitat rainforests of the orangutans disappear at an unsustainable rate.

When the rainforest is cut down or burned, orangutans are often forced to enter plantations in order to find food where humans kill or capture them.

In Asia there is a big market for orangutan babies as pets.

In both Indonesia and Malaysia there is great prestige to be able to afford to have a captured wild animal in your home.

Many of the people who keep orangutans as pets are the very people who should be enforcing the law.

Orangutans are often smuggled to other countries in the large freighters loaded with the very timber that was once their home and many die enroute.

Illnesses, stress, depression and death are typical of captive orangutans.

VERY RARE – Wild Orangutans Being Wild

Click on the photos to watch streaming videos of some of the last orangutans still in the wild. 

The way it should be.

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Female Bornean orang-utan with young infant

© BBC Natural History Unit

Don’t these orangutans look relaxed and contented? Unlike ones in captivity.

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Bornean orang-utan – overview

© BBC Natural History Unit

Unfortunately, this little one could end up on Orangutan Island or worse if we don’t do something about its habitat now.

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Infant Bornean orang-utan climbing

© BBC Natural History Unit

And, this one could end up in a small cage the rest of its life.

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Juvenile Bornean orang-utan climbing a liana

© BBC Natural History Unit

Never learning how to make a nest.

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Juvenile Bornean orang-utan building a nest

© BBC Natural History Unit

Never just hanging around their wild world.

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Adult male and juvenile Bornean orang-utans

© Tigress Productions Ltd.

Never feeding in the wild as God meant.

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Bornean orang-utans feeding on leaves

© Tigress Productions Ltd.

Never living in their native habitat.

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Bornean orang-utan rainforest habitat

© BBC Natural History Unit

Or just having the opportunity to do what wild orangutans would do.

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Bornean orang-utan scratching its back on a branch

© Tigress Productions Ltd.

Donate to your favorite orangutan program today because tomorrow may be too late.

Kind Regards,

April & Kesi