The conservation team re-introduced 30 Javanese slow lorises back to your home in the rainforest in Indonesia. Mount Halimun Salak National Park (TNGHS) performed the release operation together with Center for the Conservation of Natural Resources (BCSDA) and International Organization for Animal Rescue (IAR) Indonesia.
According to Ammi Nurwati, head of BKSDA, most of the loris were donated by community members to various BKSDA sections in West Java and donated IAR Indonesian Primate Center in Bogor undergo treatment and care. Before returning to the wild, lorises underwent a recovery and treatment process to stimulate their natural behavior. Starting with medical examinations and quarantine stays, they also underwent behavioral observations until they were declared healthy and ready to relocate for habituation, and then finally released.
“During the habituation process, the field team continues to monitor and record their progress every night. If during the habituation period all lorises are active and not behaving abnormally, then they can be released into the wild, ”Ammi shared in a statement sent to WAN. “They have to go through this long process to regain their natural instincts and make sure they can survive and reproduce in their natural habitat.”
Ammi also explained that the slow release loris program was created to support the sustainability of ecological processes in the protected area, as well as to maintain and increase the population of declining primate species.
Ahmad Munavir, head of the TNGHS office, said that the release of rehabilitated animals and conflict animals in the National Park on Mount Halimun Salak has become one of the most important programs in terms of wildlife rescue. The slow loris is one of the wildlife that is vital to maintaining the balance of the ecosystem in the park. The release area has an ecosystem that is considered suitable for the conservation and protection of slow lorises in terms of area safety, food and shade availability, habitat capacity, and predator threats. It is hoped that with this release, slow lorises will be able to breed and develop.
To minimize any risk of disease transmission, security procedures at the IAR primate center in Bogor have been further strengthened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The health and safety protocols in this release have been improved to minimize the risk of disease transmission. From the side of animals, the smear was carried out in a laboratory room Primate Research Center – IPB University, and all the results were negative. From a human point of view, all protocols were followed correctly, ”said Alan Knight OBE, IAR CEO. “All changes to this release procedure are part of efforts to eliminate the possibility of transmission of COVID-19 and other zoonotic infectious diseases so that our releases and other conservation activities can continue even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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The message is breaking! 30 slow lorises, reportedly kept as “pets”, are rescued and released back into the rainforest of Indonesia. They first appeared in World Animal News.