Recently rescued and now in safe hands, meet baby orangutans Esa and Indri, the newest arrivals at the Samboja Lestari Orangutan Volunteer Project!
It was just after 7pm in Samboja when one of the dedicated vets from the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation received two unexpected phone calls. On the other end of the line, a local resident reported a heartbreaking situation: two baby orangutans were being kept in poor conditions, and one of them had been injured in a dog attack.
Without wasting a moment, vet Agnes alerted the East Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), and a rescue team was quickly assembled. Within the hour, a joint group of BKSDA officers and BOS staff were on their way to help. When they arrived, they found a crowd had already gathered, surrounding the two baby orangutans, tiny, weak, and in desperate need of care. The locals had named them Esa and Indri.
Esa was first discovered in a plantation by a worker. A friend of his later found Indri, who had sadly been bitten by the man’s dog. It’s believed both infants had been kept as pets for about a month before being brought to Samboja Lestari.
During that time, the orangutans had only been fed sugar water and the occasional cassava leaf tip, far from the nutrition they needed to survive and grow. Indri’s wounds had been cleaned with antiseptic by local residents, and thankfully, tests later confirmed there were no signs of rabies.
Realising they needed proper care, the local residents made the decision to transport Esa and Indri to the Samboja Lestari Orangutan Sanctuary. Their journey took around 12 hours by motorbike, an exhausting trip for the orangutan babies but one that likely saved their lives.
Now safely in the care of the BOS Foundation, Esa and Indri are beginning their road to recovery. While their journey has been tough, the quick action of locals and the collaboration between BKSDA and BOSF give us hope for their future.
Orangutan rehabilitation in Borneo is a lengthy process, one that'll see Esa and Indri progress through the stages, learning and practising the essential skills they need to survive on their own before their eventual release back into the wild.
