Releasing Orangutans – BOS Australia

This evening Daniel and William were invited to attend BOS Australia‘s update on their progress of releasing orangutans back into the wild (Borneo).  The event was held at  Sydney University’s lecture theatre and was attended by over 100 people who came specifically to hear Anton Nurcahyo and Simon Husson, BOS Indonesia, present on ‘How to release an orangutan in two hours‘.

While the concept of releasing an orangutan in two hours raised the odd eyebrow it was quickly explained as, “That’s an hour to get them into the cage and an hour at the other end to prepare to get them out of the cage”.  The presentation went into a lot of details of what happens in between these two critical points as well as how BOS are protecting the orangutan and its habitat.

“This is a great project of hope”, Daniel said at the end of the evening.

The presentation was excellent, informative and, while the situation was still critical, with BOS Indonesia’s amazing efforts in conjunction with their partners here in Australia (BOS Australia) there is still a light at the end of the tunnel.

Only recently, BOS Foundation have made an historic release of 29 orangutans back into the wild, with another 150 planned by the end of 2013.  Their next release is to take place on the 1st December, 2012 with another 30 orangutans.

The release site had to match multiple criteria in order to qualify as a suitable area;

1. It had to be a forest
2. It had to be in Borneo
3. It had to be the right kind of forest – lowland forest
4. Commitment from government and locals to protect and not exploit the area
5. Have natural boundaries (Rivers)
6. No settlements – avoid conflict with humans
7. NO wild orangutans to compete for food

…and they found just the right place at Mount Batikap (Centre of Borneo).

Anton and Simon shared details of their journey to release orangutans back into the wild as well as their hope for the future.

“It is so great to see how our support here in Australia is really making a difference to the future orangutan population”, William said.

You can see the release of the orangutans here…

Daniel and William met with Elliot Christmas, who also attended the evening  and had commenced his own quest to save the orangutan, to raise $5,000 to save the orangutan with all funds going to BOS Australia.  If you would like to help Elliot achieve his goal please CLICK HERE to go to his website.