Orphaned orangutans find second chance with surrogate moms

By Dean Murray

An animal rescue organization has shown off its adorable work with orangutan moms.

An orangutan surrogacy program run by YIARI, a partner of Sussex-based International Animal Rescue (IAR), is giving the most vulnerable babies in Borneo something they thought they had lost forever – a mother’s love.

At YIARI’s rehabilitation center in West Borneo, which is supported by IAR, teams have rescued and released 267 orangutans, of which 131 are now living wild again.

IAR said: "But for the youngest infants, who have lost their mothers to tragedy, there is no chance of survival without a mother to show them how to climb, forage and build nests and how to trust the forest again. Until now."

To help replace the mother love stolen from them, YIARI has created a surrogacy program in which adult females are paired with orphaned infants and act like mothers to give them the warmth, protection and skills they need, as well as the possibility of returning to the wild in the future.

YIARI now has eight surrogate orangutan mother-and-infant pairs, with five pairs already released and living wild in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park.

Alan Knight OBE, President of IAR, said: "This programme is absolutely transformational. It gives orangutan babies a mother again and with her, a future."

Many orangutan infants become orphans after their mothers are killed or displaced due to deforestation, habitat loss and human–wildlife conflict.

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