Ragunan Orangutan Shelter

Today I visited the Orangutan Shelter at Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo, where I got to meet personally a couple of the animals in their care. Here is Saima, a 7 year old female orangutan originally from Kalimantan (Borneo), but rescued from being kept as a pet.

Strangely the shelter is in actual fact privately run, receiving no support or funding from the Zoo in which it is located. It is solely supported by 90+ year old German ex-zoo keeper and her pension, who was granted the right to set up the shelter and live there. Money is extremely tight, and only just covers food for the 20 orangutans in her care, and the salaries of the few assistants she has. There is no money or space to improve on the rust old and small cages that they have to be kept in.

It is a sad story that Indonesia's main zoo would rather spend money on a new enclosure for African gorillas, then support its own "great apes" by funding the improvement and operation of the shelter.

To see more photos from the Shelter, please look at my Blipfolio.

And I encourage you to please read this article to learn more.