The Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre is located in Central Kalimantan and is run by the BOS Foundation. It opened in 1999 and is now the largest orangutan care centre in Indonesia. The aim at Nyaru Menteng is to care for and rehabilitate orphaned orangutans and prepare them for release into protected forest.
Facilities onsite include a veterinary clinic, quarantine facilities, an infant nursery and large socialisation cages. Many young orangutans that arrive at the centre have been kept illegally as pets in deplorable conditions. Orangutans are given a full medical check upon arrival and treated for any illnesses and parasites. Many confiscated orangutans are very young and require regular milk feeds. These youngsters have full time carers during the day and night so they receive the care that they would have had from their own mothers. New arrivals undergo a quarantine period before being introduced to other compatible orangutans. Once they are with other orangutans, they can begin forming social bonds and learn skills from each other.
There is a forest area where young orangutans can visit with the staff to develop their forest skills during their rehabilitation program. These skills include nest building, traveling in the canopy and being able to identify and access various forest food sources including fruits, leaves, bark, cambium and insects. Young orangutans spend many years learning these skills from their mother in the forest, so the rehabilitation journey is a slow process. Orangutans develop at different rates depending on their age, temperament and how long they spent with their mother in the forest.
When orangutans are deemed suitable for more intensive release training, they are moved to forested pre-release islands in the Rungan River, located 8km away by road. On these islands the orangutans are free to roam and learn important forest survival skills. In recent years, BOS Foundation has released many rehabilitated orangutans into the Bukit Batikap Protection Forest into Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Released orangutans are closely monitored and provided with support as needed whilst they adapt to their new forest home. Numerous wild births have been recorded in this newly established population.
Funds from our orangutan adoption program go towards the care of these precious orphaned orangutans and their post release monitoring.
