The Sumatran orangutans live in northern Sumatra, in the Mt. Leuser national Park. A special orangutan rehabilitation center has been established at Bohorok, Bukit Lawang, for orphaned orangutans, where orangutans are taught how to return to the wild again. Today rehabilitations has become very important, because population of orangutans are decreasing. It is difficult to teach them how to survive in the wild, because most of them were brought up by humans, and they did not learn any behaviors they should learn. Rehabilitation is very important because, if they were released to the wild without learning anything, they will die because they do not know how to live in the wild.
The Bohorok Rehabilitation Center at Bukit Lawang in the eastern Langkat sector of Gunung Leuser National Park is the center handling orangutans' rehabilitation and relocation work in Sumatra. It was established in 1973 by two Swiss zoologists with funding from by the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) World Wildlife.
English: Gunung Leuser National Park in northern S...
English: jungle near Bukit Lawang
Young Orang-Utan In Bukit Lawang, Gunung Leuser Na...In 1980, the center was taken over by the Indonesian government. Since then it has received no outside funding. It survives on a portion of the money paid by visitors.
Bohorok's staff are responsible for about 35 orangutans who are free to come and go into the forest, and another 8 are in quarantine area. The center closed to receive more orangutans since 1996.
Bohorok welcomed and promoted tourism and it became major tourist attraction in the area. However, this has led to problems for rehabilitation.
The Sumatran orangutans has recently been placed on the "Critically Endangered" list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Today there are 4000 ~ 6000 left in Sumatra and disappearing at a rate of more than 1000 per year.
Orangutans breed more slowly than any other primates, the female producing a...