Despite its illegality, the orangutan pet trade continues to flourish in the regions of Borneo and Sumatra, under the market mechanisms of demand and supply for these gentle primates.

Baby orangutans are extremely adorable, and are considered to be a prized possession  and a status symbol for those who own them. On average, hundreds of them are taken from the wild yearly, and sold into the pet trade. To obtain infant orangutans, its mother is usually shot or butchered before their young are snatched from their dead or dying corpses.

Source: Paul Hilton

Did you know? Many adult females who escaped the forest fires are the same ones being killed for their babies. Weakened by hunger, lethargy, injuries and sickness, they become easy targets for poachers when they wander onto plantations and/or villages seeking sustenance and shelter from the fires.

For every baby that is illegally traded, approximately 4 – 5 orangutans die due to:

• injuries sustained from falling off the trees when their mother is shot;
• trauma from watching their mother being killed;
• contracting diseases from humans;
• and poor living conditions that they are subjected to post-capture.

While some orangutans end up as pets for wealthy individuals residing within Indonesia, many are exported to other countries such as Thailand, Japan and Taiwan. From 1985 to 1990, an estimated number of 1,000 baby orangutans were smuggled to Taiwan from Kalimantan to be sold as exotic pets! The surge in numbers can be attributed to a popular Taiwanese television program that depicted an orangutan as a pet and companion.

Source: Christian Åslund Photography

Have you ever wondered what happens to these baby orangutans after they mature?

As orangutans grow into full-sized adults, they become dangerous and unmanageable. More often than not, owners of adult orangutans will abandon them; seeking out orangutans rehabilitation centres or local zoos to take their pets in. Between 2002 and 2008, the newly opened Sibolangit rehabilitation centre in Sumatra took in 142 Sumatran orangutans.

Every zoo can only house a certain number of orangutans. Taking in additional orangutans would be taxing on the zoo’s existing resources, and hence are at times rejected. Those who end up at the rehabilitation centres have to be retaught on how to behave like a wild orangutan. Sadly, many of these orangutans will never fully learn their natural way of life, and even when they are released into the wild, will try and  return to these rehabilitation centres.

Source: Paul Hilton

For local wildlife traders, orangutans are a source of easy money. A single orangutan can bring in, at bare minimum, the equivalent of a month’s pay from a normal labouring job. When an extra $20 can provide food for one’s entire family for weeks, the combination of a ready supply of orangutans in Kalimantan due to habitat loss, and the sheer number of individuals without any income perpetuates the illegal pet trade.

Law enforcement in Indonesia has been severely lacking in prohibiting the orangutan pet trade. Despite an approximated 2,000 orangutans that have been confiscated or turned in by private owners in Indonesia over the last 3 decades, there were no more than a handful of people that were successfully prosecuted. With little punishment to deter people from committing these crimes, the illegal trade will perpetuate, threatening orangutans into extinction.

Click on the video below to watch the plight of a baby orangutan who was rescued from the pet trade: