Young Orangutan Found With Rope Around His Neck

Recently, International Animal Rescue (IAR) received a call from the Ketapang regency in

Indonesia about an orphaned orangutan. Villagers spotted the primate in the trees of a  palm oil plantation so the rescue team scrambled the jets. O.K. They were no jets involved in this rescue, but IAR’s Human-Orangutan Conflict Team – A.K.A the real-life superheroes – did have to drive three hours to get to this young orangutan. When found

When found Kokom, he still had a rope around his neck which means that he had been in captivity for some time. There was no sign of his mother but the team said, “Tragically Kokom’s mother is likely to have suffered the same fate as so many other female orangutans trying to protect their babies. She was probably killed and her baby captured to be kept or sold as a pet.” Thankfully, the rescue went smoothly and Kokom is now out of danger and safely inside a rehabilitation center.

But while Kokom may be safe, most orangutans in Indonesia are not. Their habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate.  Orangutans make their home in the Leuser Rainforest, which is being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. These innocent animals are commonly killed, kept as pets, or sold into captivity by plantation workers. While conservationists around the world are fighting to stop this, it’s an uphill battle. Palm oil is in over 50 percent of the items you see in the supermarket and the production of the staple has turned into a 44 billion dollar industry.

Organizations like Rainforest Action Network and the Rainforest Rescue have been working tirelessly to stop the deforestation of the Leuser ecosystem and protect all of the inhabitants – but they need our help. We can aid their cause by boycotting products that use palm oil – to learn how, check out these tips.

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