"We evacuated an orangutan after we received a report of it having wandered near the airport area," Sampit BKSDA Head, Muriansyah, remarked on Friday (April 26) night.
During the evacuation process, the BKSDA was assisted by the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), Haji Asan Airport officers, local forest and land fire control team, and the Sampit reptile community.
The evacuation of the orangutan named Asan was carried out in rainy conditions and in the dark of the night. Due to other barriers, the process took about three hours.
The evacuation process was carried out at a resident's garden located near the airport area. The mammal entered 30 meters into the garden that was full of trees and shrubs.
The team anesthetized the orangutan to ease the evacuation. The first anesthetization failed to put the male orangutan to sleep, though it managed to climb a tree before being stuck and lost consciousness.
The team then found it difficult to reach the orangutan.
"It was stuck at rather the high point of the tree, about 25-meter high, which was very hard to reach," he stated.
The team made various efforts to reach it, right from using a stair to a pipe to nudge it to fall into the prepared net.
Amid the evacuation, the orangutan gained consciousness, so anesthetization was administered for the second time.
After the team reached the orangutan, the members took it to a wider space to check its health.
The 30-year-old orangutan weighed 82.6 kg. Some wounds were found on its body, supposedly as a result of fights with other orangutans.
"This orangutan's weight and age are still in the ideal category. We will also take it to the BKSDA office in Pangkalan Bun," Muriansyah revealed.
Airport officer, Milianoor Safitri, expressed her gratitude to the team over the safe evacuation of the orangutan.
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Translator: M Hidayat, Devita M, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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