On the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, airport officials rescued a young orangutan from illegal export. The officers, while examining the luggage of a Russian tourist, came upon the two-year-old great-ape, who was stunned in a rattan basket, according to The Jakarta Post.
The tourist was arrested for attempted smuggling. He claimed to have bought the pet for $ 3,000, according to the newspaper. A friend told him it was okay to take the monkey to Russia as a pet.
At two years old, orangutans are still in toddler-age, where they live close to their mother. The apes are among the endangered species. In freedom, they only live on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the partly island of Indonesia Borneo.
"Inhumane" handling
The head of the airport's quarantine department, Dewa Delanata, described the Russian's handling of the animal in the newspaper as "inhuman." The male orangutan had been drugged so that he lay unconscious in the rattan box for two to three hours.
The tourist had syringes and narcotics with him to administer to the monkey at the stopover in South Korea. The boy was placed in the care of the Balinese nature conservation authority. According to the Jakarta Post, the authorities also found two geckos and five other lizards in the Russian's luggage.
According to data from early 2018, the number of orangutans in Borneo alone has fallen by nearly 150,000 over the past 15 years. According to estimates, only between 50,000 and 100,000 of the animals live on the island today.
According to researchers, the great majority of great apes are dying of "unnatural death" - either by poachers or by losing their habitat.
On Borneo and the neighboring island of Sumatra there are fewer and fewer trees, in whose crowns the apes live. Over the past decade, more than seven million hectares of rainforest have been mined and burned in the regions - an area the size of Bavaria.