Help us save our Orang Utans

The destruction of Borneo’s rainforest threatens the orangutan with extinction.  Four Paws operates a rescue station in Samboja Lestari, in cooperation with the government. Orphaned orangutans are nursed back to health and prepared for their return to the wild.

Giving baby orangutan orphans a second chance For more than a year the international animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS, in collaboration with its local partner Jejak Pulang and the Indonesian government, has been running a rehabilitation program for orangutans on Borneo. On 17 May 2018 the FOUR PAWS ORANGUTAN FOREST SCHOOL in East Kalimantan was officially opened. Nine orangutan orphans (six male, three female) from the ages of just a few months to 9 years make up the first cohort of pupils at the 100-hectare forest school, led by Dr Signe Preuschoft of FOUR PAWS, a primatologist with over 20 years’ experience in great ape rehabilitation. Each orphan is likely to have witnessed the gruesome killing of their mothers, and often show remnants of that trauma in their behaviour. “The goal of the orangutan project in Borneo is to teach the orangutans essential skills so that when they reach the appropriate age in a few years’ time, they can return to their natural environment to live freely and independently.”  

For the first seven years of their life, orang-utans are completely dependent on their

mothers, for everything they need to know to survive: Find food, climb trees and much more.

In the FOUR PAWS forest school, human surrogates take on the task, of teaching orphaned Orang Utans. 

Together, they climb right to the tops of the trees – one using his hands and feet, the other using a climbing harness and safety helmet. Four Paws also works with communities, government and forestry companies to find a solution to the ever growing threat from human species conflict.

Where in Borneo is the Forest School?

The forest school is a 100-hectare-large forested area between the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda. The land provides natural living space for young orangutan orphans, who are taught essential forest survival skills through individualistic therapeutic and rehabilitative methods. 

Why do orangutans need to be protected?

The orangutans of East Kalimantan need all the help that they can get. Only about 50,000 Bornean orangutans are left, which denotes an 80 percent decline since 1950. During the same time period some three-quarters of Borneo’s rainforest have been converted for human activities, mainly for industrial agriculture such as oil palm plantations, or extractive activities such as coal mining. This presents the orangutans with two possibilities: starve, or steal food from the plantations. Because of this, the farmers view them as thieves or pests who have to be killed. The helpless orphans are snatched from their dead mothers and are sold or held illegally as pets.