Zoo Director in Malaysia and Indonesia to Help Save Orangutans
October 2012

Your Zoo Director and Orangutan Species Survival Plan (SSP) Field Advisor, Ronda Schwetz, is currently traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia to help rehabilitate and study endangered orangutans.

Previous Orangutan SSP Field Trips have encompassed visits to the Samboja Lestari and Wanariset centres, to the Lower Kinabatangan forest, to Zoo Negara, and to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. In 2012, with the largest group yet, they are pleased to include a visit to Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Tanjung Puting is one of the most famous sites in orangutan research and conservation, but remains under constant threat from palm oil plantations, illegal logging and extensive mining activities. The Park is thought to be home to between 5,000 and 9,000 Central Bornean orangutans. On this visit, Ronda and her team will observe how the world's largest orangutan population is directly under threat, and engage with a variety of local stakeholders including miners, loggers and conservationists.

Ronda's team will spend their first 10 days in Malaysia at the Matang Wildlife Centre. First constructed in 1998, the Centre now houses 19 orangutans, as well as numerous other species threatened with extinction such as the Bornean sun bear, Müller's Bornean gibbon, and the Bornean clouded leopard.

Ronda's next stop is Indonesia for five days at the Tanjung Puting. Perhaps most famous as the home of Camp Leakey, Tanjung Puting is an orangutan research and former rehabilitation site inaugurated by Dr Biruté M F Galdikas and Rod Brindamour in 1971.

Also in Indonesia, a section of the Orangutan SSP group, including veterinarian Dr. Christine Nelson from the Madison area, will visit the orangutan rehabilitation center of Ketapang. Dr. Nelson will stay a year at the Ketapang orangutan rehabilitation center to work with local vets on orangutan health.

Due to many generous donations, the Orangutan SSP was able to purchase land next to the rehab center for future expansion and to plant vegetables and fruit trees to help feed the animals at this site. The team is also donating several thousands of dollars worth of medical and enrichment supplies to both sites.

Schwetz, reflecting on her work with the Orangutan SSP, wrote to Henry Vilas Zoo during last year's excursion; "This is one of those times where your Zoo is the industry leader in helping save an iconic species from extinction."

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