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After putting the 18-month-old orangutan, Didik, under anesthesia, the vets check a portable heart monitor which works with a smart phone. The ECG recorder enables the vets to monitor the heart rate of Didik during the operation.
After putting the 18-month-old orangutan, Didik, under anesthesia, the vets check a portable heart monitor which works with a smart phone. The ECG recorder enables the vets to monitor the heart rate of Didik during the operation. Photograph: International Animal Rescue
After putting the 18-month-old orangutan, Didik, under anesthesia, the vets check a portable heart monitor which works with a smart phone. The ECG recorder enables the vets to monitor the heart rate of Didik during the operation. Photograph: International Animal Rescue

Meet Didik: shot and orphaned baby orangutan highlights crisis

This article is more than 7 years old

Abandoned with a bullet wound in a local shop, an orphaned orangutan named Didik is just one of thousands of victims of the ecological destruction of Borneo


When International Animal Rescue (IAR) staff found Didik, he was emaciated and near death. The 18-month-old orangutan, who had been dumped at a local store in Ketapang, Indonesia, had a bullet in his shoulder and had very likely seen his mother killed by the same people who put it there.

“Our team deals with so many cases like Didik’s in which the baby has ended up as someone’s pet but the true fate of the mother remains unknown,” said Lis Key, communications manager for the IAR, adding that “orangutan mothers are very protective of their babies and wouldn’t let go of them without a fight.”

The fact that Didik was found alone almost certainly means his mother is dead, according to the IAR. In the wild, orangutans live with their mother for seven to eight years, longer than any other mammal except humans.

Didik was rushed to the orangutan facility where the IAR team spent several weeks focusing on Didik’s recovery from severe malnutrition. Once he was strong enough, the team operated on the young orangutan.

Vet Sulhi Aufa examines Didik pre-op as he clings to one of the team’s vet nurses. Photograph: International Animal Rescue

“Fortunately the bullet was lodged close to the surface of the skin so it was a straightforward procedure to remove it,” said IAR vet Ayu Budi Handayani. “No one could call Didik lucky after all he’s been through but certainly he was fortunate to suffer only a fairly superficial wound.”

Didik is now on the road to recovery and the centre hopes to soon introduce him to other baby orangutans in their care. Located in Ketapang, the IAR facility currently houses 106 orangutans, all victims of deforestation.

“With the continuing, relentless destruction of their forest home, orangutans are becoming more and more vulnerable to hunters and increasingly at risk of coming into conflict with humans,” said Key.

Didik under anaesthetic pre-op. Photograph: International Animal Rescue

This summer, the Bornean orangutan was up-listed by the IUCN Red List to critically endangered, the last step before extinction. No one knows for certain how many Bornean orangutans survive today, but experts estimate the population has dropped from around 288,500 individuals in 1973 to just over 100,000. Moreover, experts believe that around 2,000-3,000 orangutans are killed in Indonesian Borneo every year. Unfortunately, the Bornean orangutan’s closest relative, the Sumatran orangutan, is also categorised as critically endangered.

The island of Borneo – split between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei – has undergone drastic change in the last few decades. Industrialized logging came to the island in the 1970s, decimating ancient rainforests. Then came palm oil: over the last few decades large swathes of the island have been planted with vast oil palm plantations.

Since the 1970s, Borneo has lost around 40% of its forests in total. Indonesia deforestation rate is higher than Brazil’s.

The destruction of much of Borneo’s forests has pushed orangutan populations into increasing contact with humans, frequently leading to conflict. Orangutans, many of which have lost their food resources, are forced into palm oil plantations where they are viewed as pests and often shot. Orangutans can be destructive to the young palms, but the exotic palm fruit is also not enough to sustain a great ape which in the wild consumes hundreds of different types of fruit. Orangutans are often found stuck in plantations slowly succumbing to starvation and dehydration.

Whether or not Didik was a victim of the palm oil industry or simply caught by poachers in a forest remains unknown. But as the orangutan crisis goes on, year-after-year, facilities like IAR’s are filling up with orphans and injured adults.

“Sadly there has been no let up in the number of young orangutans coming into our rehabilitation centre and, should there be more fires in Indonesia in the near future, our team could be kept busy once more in the months ahead,” said Key.

Last year, large areas of Indonesian Borneo burned. Farmers and plantations often set fire to clear vegetation in Indonesia. But 2015 turned into a conflagration. Experts estimate that the country lost 2.1m hectares, much of it rainforest and peat forest, to the fires.

Dry conditions, likely exacerbated by climate change and El Niño, worsened the crisis and covered much of the country in a yellow, toxic pall. Recently scientists estimated that this haze – which spread to Malaysia and Singapore as well – may have led to 100,000 early deaths in the region.

No one has tried to estimate how many orangutans – or other animals – may have perished. The island, more than twice as large as Britain – is home to thousands of other species found no-where else including pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, the Bornean bristlehead and a nearly extinct subspecies of the Sumatran rhino.

Indonesia is working hard this year to crackdown on any burning and not allow a repeat of last year.

As for Didik, he’s been lucky – at least considering what has happened to thousands of orangutans on Borneo. Still, Karmele Llano Sanchez, programme director of IAR Indonesia, said Didik continues to suffer from psychological impacts.

The bullet in Didik is removed using a tweezers. Photograph: International Animal Rescue

“For an animal like an orangutan, witnessing the death of its mother is a profoundly shocking experience. That is undoubtedly why Didik looks so sad and depressed. It will take a long time for him to recover from the terrible trauma he has been through and start to take an interest in his surroundings.”

Key said there is still hope that one day Didik will leave the centre and return to his forest home.

“We are very optimistic that he, like the many babies in our care, will have the chance to live back in the wild as nature intended,” she said. “They just need time and patience to help them develop all the behaviours and skills of wild orangutans.”

The main difficulty in freeing captive orangutans back into the wild, however, is finding enough suitable forest to re-release hundreds of orphans.

As Didik was trying to cling to the vets, they gave him a small bottle to hold instead as he was going under the anaesthetic. Photograph: International Animal Rescue

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