Thailand to Repatriate Four More Smuggled Orangutans to Indonesia

BANGKOK, Feb 3 (TNA) – Thailand will repatriate four more
orangutans that have been seized from wildlife smugglers back to Indonesia.

It will be the third time that Thailand returns smuggled
apes to Indonesia after sending 14 in 2015 and two more last year to the
Southeast Asian neighbour.

Indonesian ambassador to Thailand Ahmad Rusdi on Sunday
visited a wildlife protection facility of the Department of National Parks,
Wildlife and Plant Conservation in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi province.

The Ambassador said his main objective was to give morale
support to Thai wildlife officials who had taken care of the orangutans as the
two countries celebrated the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations this
year.

He said the two orangutans Thailand returned to Indonesia in
December last year – a nine-year-old female named Kola and a seven-year-old
male named Giant – had been in good health at a wildlife sanctuary on Borneo
Island.

Prateep Hermpitak, head of a regional wildlife conservation
office, said Thailand was examining the origins and giving health care to the
remaining orangutans before they were set for repatriation.

Thailand has repatriated orangutans to Indonesia under the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(Cites) which states that confiscated wildlife must be returned to their
country of origin.(TNA)

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