Baby Orangutan Found Living in a Dark Wooden Cage Is a Sad Reminder of What Palm Oil Is Doing to This Species

Conservationists in West Borneo have rescued a sick baby orangutan from a bleak and dangerous life in captivity as a pet. The young animal was being kept in a small wooden cage in Patih Benteng Village, Nanga Tayap District in Ketapang Regency. Living in completely unfit conditions, he slowly but surely developed an infection and urgently needed help and specialized care. Fortunately, International Animal Rescue (IAR) learned about the baby just in time and stepped in to give him the help he needed right away.

The baby orangutan was kept by a man named Jalim who claimed he had found the animal alone on the industrial tree plantation where he worked. To help the little orphan, he took him to his house where, unfortunately, he enclosed the animal in a wooden cage just one square meter in size.

The man named the baby Uka and fed him fruit and condensed milk. When the IAR team learned about the orangutan, the organization’s team, together with officials from the local Forestry Department (BKSDA), traveled to the village to rescue him.

The rescuers found Uka in a tiny dark crate, standing among stinking rotten fruit and his own feces. His health was visibly failing and he had a runny nose and watery eyes. The baby was listless, in spite of the commotion around him. It was a heartbreaking sight, but it was thankfully the last moment the orangutan would spend in the cage.

Uka, who is around two years old, was struggling to breathe due to a respiratory condition. After a medical check, the baby was settled into the transport crate and taken to IAR’s Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Ketapang.

Once at the IAR center, Uka was given nutritious food and medical treatment to relieve his symptoms. He was then placed in the quarantine unit with a big, soft teddy bear to comfort him. It’s heartbreaking to know this orphaned baby can no longer cuddle up to his mother.

The little one will remain in quarantine for several weeks. Afterwards, he will undergo medical checks to make sure that he is free from contagious diseases and finally be introduced to other rescued baby orangutans.

“The condition of little Uka illustrates just one of the many reasons why people should not keep orangutans as pets,” said Alan Knight, IAR Chief Executive.

“Young primates are extremely susceptible to human diseases. First they suffer the trauma of losing their mothers and being taken out of their natural environment which is very stressful for them. Then they are fed on an unsuitable diet lacking all the vital nutrients an orangutan needs and exposed to germs and diseases which can prove fatal if left untreated.”

While Uka is now in good hands, so many other young orangutans who fall victim to the same fate never get saved. Sadly, due to the expansion of commercial palm oil plantations across Indonesia, the orangutan’s native home is being decimated and replaced with these cheap oil plants. Like Uka, many homeless orangutans wander onto plantations looking for food and shelter and end up captured or killed. It is likely that Uka’s mother was killed, and he had no choice but to search for some sort of sustenance. What many people don’t realize is young orangutans are very similar to toddlers and rely on their mothers for care and nourishment. Holding these little ones captive as pets is not only illegal, but it can cause serious trauma and damage to these young, impressionable babies. After all, we would never think to keep a lost orphan child in a cage, feeding them food through a slot.

Orangutans are teetering on the brink of extinction, and if we don’t step up to lower our consumption of palm oil and act to protect native forests, we could lose this species within the next few decades.

To learn more about which consumer goods palm oil can be found in, click here. One of the best things you can do to help orangutans like Uka is Support the work of IAR. They work tirelessly to ensure animals in their care recover and return to the forest, if possible. To make a donation to their noble cause, click here. 

All image source: International Animal Rescue