What is the difference between us and orang-utans?

Orang-utans share 97% of human DNA, making them one of our closest living relatives. They are intelligent, curious, emotional, sensitive and playful. They laugh, they grieve, they squabble, they show off, they are cheeky, they hurt, they get scared, and they ‘love’. 

Yet they are a critically endangered species due to loss of their natural tropical rainforest habitat - from logging, mining, palm oil plantations, the illegal trade of exotic wildlife, and sometimes being hunted for bush meat by locals. 

During the past decade wild orang-utan populations have decreased by around 50%, making them vulnerable to extinction. 

I have just returned from an orangutan sanctuary in Borneo, where I volunteered for two weeks helping to prepare food and stimulating activities to occupy them for the time they spend between their rescue and eventual release. 

Baby orangutans as young as 3 months old that have been orphaned require around-the-clock care, and attend daily ‘Forest School’, where their ‘babysitters’ lovingly encourage them to forage for food, climb trees, and learn how to survive once reintroduced to the wild. 

Older orang-utans are given the best possible care, but are still not ‘free’. Some have been there a heart-breaking 20 years. Most adult males must be separated from each other - and from females - so it‘s an unnatural & lonely existence. 

Many orang-utans - of all ages - have had horrific backgrounds of abuse and neglect at the hands of humans, and are emotionally and physically scarred. Most will eventually be released, but some will never be able to fend for themselves. 

The problem is complex - there’s no quick and easy fix. 

But there IS something we can do to help . . . Borneo Orang-utan Survival (BOS) is an Indonesian non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Bornean orang-utan and their habitat. They have rescued more than 2,300 orang-utans, and currently provide care for 700 individual orang-utans with the support of 400 compassionate staff.

One fabulous plan they have, is to buy farmland and segment it into small re-forested ‘islands’ divided by moats the orang-utans will be unable to cross. Although this is only a half-way measure to total freedom, it will enable up to 200 orang-utans to live more naturally until they can return to their true home. They will be able to feel the grass beneath their feet, swing from ‘jungle gyms’, sit high in the trees and look down on the world. But most importantly, it will give them the chance to interact with each other as nature intended - one dominant male and several females to keep each other company. 

It’s a great plan, and BOS are nearly there, but they need more money to finish the job, and then buy extra land to rehabilitate and eventually release more orangutans as they are rescued. 

Humans have made the lives of far too many of these magnificent creatures a nightmare. My DREAM is to help restore their dignity and freedom, and help save a species along the way. As for me, apart from the volunteering, and helping buy a new power drill for the enrichment centre, I have 'adopted' a baby orang-utan named Topan.

Will you help too? It will make an enormous difference, and both I and the orang-utans would be so grateful.

Apart from the larger ‘island’ initiative, there are other ways you can help: 

$10.00 can provide fruit for 7 orang-utans, or plant a tree to help re-forest ruined jungle. 
$25.00 can buy equipment for the orang-utan enrichment programme 
$50.00 can provide a general health check-up for routine health screening of orang-utans 
$100.00 can provide one orang-utan feed for 30 days 

Larger amounts will go to something really worthwhile, such as being pooled to buy and revegetate more land. Or perhaps even go toward a helicopter that can take 'forest-ready' orang-utans deep DEEP into the wilderness where they won't be bothered by humans again. . .

100% of all donations will go directly to BOS Indonesia in order to cut out other 'middlemen'.

If you need more convincing that this is a worthy cause, please see some of my photos at www.pinterest.com/bambi1183/

NOTE: I am also using a direct BOS fund-raising platform, but as that will only access my own Facebook friends, I am reaching out to ask for help from around the planet. 

The orang-utan's future is in OUR hands. 'We' put them in this position, and now we have a duty to make things right.