Alan

The following message has been sent to all adopters prior to being published on this website. We apologise if you have adopted this infant in the past and have not seen the following message. This is likely to be due to either spam/junk email filters or possibly because you've unsubscribed from our lists at some point in the past.

Date: 11th Feb 2013

We are contacting you with good news that your adopted orangutan Alan has been released back into the Bornean jungle!

Alan was recently released in back into the wild after being cared for in the Pangkalan Bun Care Centre in Central Kalimantan. Alan was deemed suitable to be released back into his natural habitat after being rehabilitated for nine years.

Alan arrived at the care center on 4th July, 2003 weighing 6.35kg and was estimated to be about 2 years of age. Normally an orangutan infant will stay with his or her mother until around 6 to 8 years of age. Although nothing is known about Alan's previous history, the fact that he is young and arrived at the care center as an orphan indicates that his mother was most likely killed intentionally and he was taken away after her death.

Alan showed all the signs of an excellent candidate for release during his time in pre-release quarantine. In particular, Alan would get excited about the tree branches provided daily for nest building. He loved to practice his nest building! Alan would spend hours breaking the branches into different sizes and will meticulously lay them out into a nest. Once he has made the perfect nest, he will mess the branches up and start again in a new area. Nest building is one of the essential skills required by orangutans to live in the wild.

Alan was released in Hanau, just the east of Tanjung Puting National Park, in Central Kalimantan. Like all orphans from the centre, Alan’s release was personally supervised by Dr Birute Galdikas. The latest reports are Alan is looking healthy and is considered by Dr Galdikas as a successful release.

"It is always a great reward to see our rehabilitated orangutans returning to the forest they belong in. The Orangutan Project has been supporting the Pangkalan Bun Care Centre for more than 15 years with both financial and technical assistance", says Leif Cocks, President and Founder of The Orangutan Project.

Current adopters of Alan through The Orangutan Project will have their adoption transferred to orangutan Rahayu, who is also being rehabilitated at the Ketapang Care Center. If you would like to select a different orangutan to adopt please contact Rebecca via rebecca.cooper@orangutan.org.au.

Thank you for your ongoing support and helping Alan return to his jungle home.

Regards,

Leif Cocks
President and Founder
The Orangutan Project