Rescue Center: A home for injured orangutans and orphans
The SOCP Orangutan Quarantine and Rehabilitation Center, close to the village of Batu Mbelin on Sumatra was founded in 2001 as part of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP). All SOCP activities in Indonesia are coordinated by the Indonesian organization Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL), a sister organization of our Swiss partner PanEco.
Most of the orangutans in the station are orphans whose mothers were killed by poachers. Others, mostly older animals, were caught in palm oil plantations or during their escape from burning forests. Others were confiscated from private households.
New arrivals, often only a few months old, spend several weeks in quarantine before they arrive in the actual sanctuary. Many of them are heavily traumatized and suffer from illness, wounds, and malnutrition. Without intensive 24-hour care they would not survive.
As orangutans normally stay with their mothers until about eight years of age, reintroduction into the wild is only possible from this age on. Until then they need to be cared for within the sanctuary while they acquire the knowledge necessary for survival in the wild. To assist their learning, there is an area of forest adjacent to the sanctuary, where the juveniles are able to practice climbing, building nests, and foraging.
