A short satement regarding the facts surrounding Ten Ten.

Orangutan appeal UK would like to clarify some of the facts which are the subject of the latest petition published by Sean Whyte of Nature Alert. 

Sabah Wildlife Department send a small proportion of the orangutans from Sepilok to the Nature reserve adjacent to the Rasa Ria resort to enable them to complete their rehabilitation process.  The youngsters are housed at night and during the day they are able to play and climb freely in the reserve under the watchful eye of the rangers.  This is a protected forest area where the youngsters will not need to compete with dominant females in the same way as they do in the forest surrounding the Rehabilitation Centre.  After a few months when their skills have been perfected, they are returned to Sepilok to finish their rehabilitation and be released into Sepilok’s Kabili reserve.

Orangutan Appeal UK are not part of the decision making process at Sepilok or of the Sabah Wildlife Department and have no influence on how Sabah Wildlife Department wish to run their Rehabilitation programme.  By sending young orangutans to this reserve it allows the orphans to finish their rehabilitation without being  intimidated by the larger orangutans and encourages a quicker learning curve.

Orangutan Appeal UK supports the work of Sepilok and are privileged to be allowed to help.  We regularly provide UK vets, fund the vet nurse to care for the youngsters, build new enclosures and multiple other projects, including ground breaking research, all of which are designed to aid the rehabilitation process. We feel that none of the projects we fund are in any way detrimental to the progression of the orangutans being released back into the wild.