The Orangutan Project and our partners at the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) joined forces to create the Bornean Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA). We run an orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centre in the Berau Regency in East Kalimantan. Our BORA centre has a range of facilities including quarantine and socialisation enclosures, a veterinary clinic, and a dormitory for staff to stay overnight to care for sick or infant orangutans.
BORA has numerous teams in the field that investigate and confiscate illegally held captive orangutans. Most of these are young orphan orangutans whose mothers have been brutally killed. Once rescued from often squalid conditions, these vulnerable orphans will undergo a full medical check and quarantine period at our BORA centre before being introduced to other orangutans. Many confiscated orangutans are very young and require regular milk feeds. These youngsters have full time carers during the day and night so they receive the care that they would have had from their own mothers.
After the young orangutans have completed their quarantine period, they can then take part in Jungle School where they develop the required skills needed for release into the forest. These skills include nest building, traveling in the canopy and being able to find and identify a large variety of forest food sources including fruits, leaves, bark, cambium, and insects. Young orangutans spend many years learning these skills from their mother in the forest, so the rehabilitation journey is a slow process. Orangutans develop at different rates depending on their age, temperament and how long they spent with their mother in the forest.
During the final stage of rehabilitation, orangutans are moved to forested pre-release islands. These islands provide the perfect habitat for older orangutans to prepare for release into protected forest. Once released, the orangutans are closely monitored to ensure they are adapting to the wild.
Funds from our orangutan adoption program go towards the rescue and care of these precious orphaned orangutans at our BORA rescue centre.
