Measuring And Predicting Success Of Reintroduction Orangutans
MEASURING AND PREDICTING SUCCESS OF
ORANGUTAN REINTRODUCTION
FITRIAH BASALAMAH
GRADUATE SCHOOL
BOGOR AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
BOGOR
2016
STATEMENT LETTER
I hereby declare that dissertation entitled Measuring and Predicting
Success of Orangutan Reintroduction is original result of my own research
supervised under advisory committee and has never submitted in any form at any
institution before. All information from other authors cited here are mentioned in
the text and listed in the reference at the end part of the dissertation.
Jakarta, July 2016
Fitriah Basalamah
Student ID G362100041
SUMMARY
FITRIAH BASALAMAH. Measuring and Predicting Success of Reintroduction
Orangutans. Supervise by DYAH PERWITASARI, SRI SUCI UTAMI
ATMOKO, IBNUL QAYIM, AND CAREL PVAN SCHAIK.
The genus Pongo, the orangutan, is the only Asian great apes. At present,
two species are recognized; Pongo abelii, which are confined to the northern most
parts of Sumatra, and Pongo pygmaeus on Borneo (Groves, 2001). Orangutans are
under threat throughout their range from habitat destruction through logging,
conversion of forest for plantation and mining land-uses, and from hunting either
for meat or for the illegal pet-trade. Animals confiscated to enforce the law
against the trade of orangutans, have to be reintroduced to suitable and protected
areas following international guidelines (Guidelines for Nonhuman Primate ReIntroduction of the IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group; Baker 2002).
Successful reintroduction is the ultimate aim of rehabilitation process but in the
past reintroduction practices have sometimes been sub-optimal. Therefore, even
though it is a critical component of the law enforcement, relatively little is known
about the success rate of past orangutan re-introduction (Russon 2009). Because
ex-captive orangutans must adapt to forest life (Russon 2002), post-releasemonitoring becomes an important tool to evaluate the reintroduction process. The
Indonesian Orangutan Action Plan, which was launched by the president of
Indonesia in December 2007, stated that The Orangutan Reintroduction Program
will be closed in 2015 and all viable healthy ex-captive orangutans will be
released due to course.
The studies making up this dissertation were conducted in Kehje Sewen
Forest - East Kalimantan during one year beginning April 2012 and in Jantho
Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Station, Aceh Province from April 2011
until December 2012. This monitoring allowed us to observe every step of their
adjustment to the new environment and to evaluate the adequacy of the
procedures of such re-introduction programs. I observed the forest skills (daily
activities, diet pattern, height, nesting behavior, association, home range and food
patch) of 16 ex-rehabilitant orangutans, estimated to be 4 – 13 years old. The
observation showed that all individuals in both location survived their first year.
This dissertation is divided into six chapters: (1) background information
on orangutan life history, ecology, threats and conservation related with this study
(2) a literature review of reintroduction process on readjustment of forest skills (3)
monitoring orangutan reintroduction : results of activity budget, diet composition,
vertical use, nesting behavior and associations during the first year post-release in
Kehje Sewen, East Kalimantan (4) preliminary result on ranging behavior
orangutans reintroduced into Jantho Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Station
– Aceh Province (5) general discussion; and (6) conclusions.
Based on observation in Kehje Sewen, ex-rehabilitant orangutans spent
most of their time feeding and had a largely frugivorous diet, similar to
comparable wild orangutans. They were able to build a nest, and often reused or
rebuilt old nests. They also spent more time on the ground of their total activity
time than their wild counterparts. Associations between male-female and femalefemale were almost similar on a distance of
ORANGUTAN REINTRODUCTION
FITRIAH BASALAMAH
GRADUATE SCHOOL
BOGOR AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
BOGOR
2016
STATEMENT LETTER
I hereby declare that dissertation entitled Measuring and Predicting
Success of Orangutan Reintroduction is original result of my own research
supervised under advisory committee and has never submitted in any form at any
institution before. All information from other authors cited here are mentioned in
the text and listed in the reference at the end part of the dissertation.
Jakarta, July 2016
Fitriah Basalamah
Student ID G362100041
SUMMARY
FITRIAH BASALAMAH. Measuring and Predicting Success of Reintroduction
Orangutans. Supervise by DYAH PERWITASARI, SRI SUCI UTAMI
ATMOKO, IBNUL QAYIM, AND CAREL PVAN SCHAIK.
The genus Pongo, the orangutan, is the only Asian great apes. At present,
two species are recognized; Pongo abelii, which are confined to the northern most
parts of Sumatra, and Pongo pygmaeus on Borneo (Groves, 2001). Orangutans are
under threat throughout their range from habitat destruction through logging,
conversion of forest for plantation and mining land-uses, and from hunting either
for meat or for the illegal pet-trade. Animals confiscated to enforce the law
against the trade of orangutans, have to be reintroduced to suitable and protected
areas following international guidelines (Guidelines for Nonhuman Primate ReIntroduction of the IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group; Baker 2002).
Successful reintroduction is the ultimate aim of rehabilitation process but in the
past reintroduction practices have sometimes been sub-optimal. Therefore, even
though it is a critical component of the law enforcement, relatively little is known
about the success rate of past orangutan re-introduction (Russon 2009). Because
ex-captive orangutans must adapt to forest life (Russon 2002), post-releasemonitoring becomes an important tool to evaluate the reintroduction process. The
Indonesian Orangutan Action Plan, which was launched by the president of
Indonesia in December 2007, stated that The Orangutan Reintroduction Program
will be closed in 2015 and all viable healthy ex-captive orangutans will be
released due to course.
The studies making up this dissertation were conducted in Kehje Sewen
Forest - East Kalimantan during one year beginning April 2012 and in Jantho
Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Station, Aceh Province from April 2011
until December 2012. This monitoring allowed us to observe every step of their
adjustment to the new environment and to evaluate the adequacy of the
procedures of such re-introduction programs. I observed the forest skills (daily
activities, diet pattern, height, nesting behavior, association, home range and food
patch) of 16 ex-rehabilitant orangutans, estimated to be 4 – 13 years old. The
observation showed that all individuals in both location survived their first year.
This dissertation is divided into six chapters: (1) background information
on orangutan life history, ecology, threats and conservation related with this study
(2) a literature review of reintroduction process on readjustment of forest skills (3)
monitoring orangutan reintroduction : results of activity budget, diet composition,
vertical use, nesting behavior and associations during the first year post-release in
Kehje Sewen, East Kalimantan (4) preliminary result on ranging behavior
orangutans reintroduced into Jantho Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Station
– Aceh Province (5) general discussion; and (6) conclusions.
Based on observation in Kehje Sewen, ex-rehabilitant orangutans spent
most of their time feeding and had a largely frugivorous diet, similar to
comparable wild orangutans. They were able to build a nest, and often reused or
rebuilt old nests. They also spent more time on the ground of their total activity
time than their wild counterparts. Associations between male-female and femalefemale were almost similar on a distance of