Projects
Thanks to the many thousands of Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UKs supporters around the globe, the long and arduous campaign to have the boxing orangutans being held at Safari World in Thailand returned to their Indonesian home has finally ended in triumph.
Safari World is a popular tourist attraction which up until recently illegally held orangutans, which were trained to perform in a boxing ring – complete with outfit and gloves. The Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK joined forces with Nature Alert in an attempt to stop this abuse and get the Thai Government to agree to these apes being repatriated.
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Monday 20th March 2006 started off as a normal day for a group of 6 orangutans at Sepilok, but this was no ordinary day, this was the day that they were going to be finally released back into the wild in the Kabili reserve which surrounds the centre.
Tobby, Kimbol, Suzanna, Brock, Tompong and Annalisa have been resident at Sepilok for different lengths of time, but they all share a too familiar story of tragedy and loss which resulted in them being brought to the centre. This was the day though where their stories moved onto the next chapter, a new life awaited them in the forest.
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In October we ran our second VIP Tour of the UK. Unfortunately, Mr Laurentius, the Deputy Director of Wildlife, had to cancel at the last moment due to his wife’s ill health. We were delighted to have his Deputy, Jum Raphia, step into his place and along with Dr Sen they gave some brilliant presentations and made the tour a roaring success.
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During the awareness tour in 2004, our VIPs visited Twycross Zoo where they gave a presentation of the work being carried out in Sabah to save the orangutans. Dr Sen was very complimentary about the standards of care provided to the apes in the zoo’s care and the Appeal began investigating the possibility of a “Keeper Exchange Programme” between Twycross and Sepilok – this was to be yet another “first”!
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It’s is over 18 months since the Appeal refurbished the night nursery and provided a new quarantine ward for the Centre and it was time for us to sit down and decide what else was needed to improve the orphans chance of survival and eventual return to the wild.
The question was answered very quickly – a sick bay!
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Misouri arrived at Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre in 1997 aged approx 14 or 15 years old. He was a wild born male who had wondered onto a local plantation and was at risk of being shot for crop raiding. In /Sabah the law allows land owners and farmers to protect their property, even if that means shooting an endangered species of animal to do so.
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On 19th April 2004 Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre was presented with a purpose built Land Rover Defender 130 crew cab by the Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK and Land Rover, in a joint sponsorship deal.
The Centres old 4 wheel drive Mazda, which was used by the Rescue and Relocation Team, became unrepairable several months ago. The Centre had no budget available with which to purchase a new vehicle to enable them to continue this very essential work and therefore the Appeal offered to do its very best to secure one for them.
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As we travelled out to Sabah in April, I didn’t realise that we were about to make history again!
Our latest project was to relocate an orangutan who had been raiding a nearby village, risking being shot, and was currently being held at Sepilok.
Tom King, was about 28 years old, a full cheek padded, wild born male. Not a happy one at that, as he wanted out!
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In March 2003 word was received from Sepilok’s Chief Vet saying they had found a suitable candidate for the vacancy of Carer for the very young orphans in the Nursery but the Wildlife Department were unable to provide the funding.
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On August 15th 2002 a team of five appeal members, Sue Sheward, Anne Seviour (Secretary), Lynda and Malcolm Averill (Northern Branch) and Avril Nelson arrived in Sabah, ready to carry out our next Project – the release of two female orangutans into Tabin Reserve.
Tabin is a reserve twice the size of Singapore and where we released King in July 2001. This release was going to be a little bit special as the BBC were filming the whole event for inclusion in their new series Serious Jungle.
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