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  The Star 24 May 07
Orang utans heading home
TAIPING: The Orang Utan Island at the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort, near here, will be returning two adult primates – BJ and Jerangkong – to the Sarawak Forestry Department today.

A spokesman of the resort said 11 infant orang utans had been in the sanctuary since 2002. The sanctuary has 12 adults.

“BJ and Jerangkong were on loan to us in 2002 and we are returning them to Sarawak, as we have bred enough orang utans to continue with the programme,” he said, when met at the sanctuary yesterday.

BJ is a 17-year-old male while Jerangkong is a 23-year-old female, who gave birth to Elizabeth last February. The spokesman said the survival rate among orang utans born in sanctuaries was slim and they hardly survived to adulthood.

“Our success is due to our infant care unit that was built in 2004, which provides medical care for the infants. “Premature orang utan babies or those which are unable to suckle would be taken to the unit and monitored round the clock.

“If we don't separate it from the mother, it would die. After evaluation, the healthy infants will go through seven stages of rehabilitation before they can go back to the sanctuary,” he said. The latest addition to the family is a female infant born on May 17 and yet to be named.

The RM2.1mil sanctuary covers 14ha and was the brainchild of MK Land Holdings Bhd chairman Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar.

“Besides breeding, we also have conservation, education, research and rehabilitation programmes,” the spokesman said.

Malaysia's great ape is the Bornean orang utan (Pongo Pygmaeus). Under the IUCN – The World Conservation Union, the orang utan is listed as endangered to critically endangered. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that there are only 3,000 Pongo Pygmaeus orang utans left in the world.
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