BANGKOK – Thailand will repatriate four more orangutans that have been seized from wildlife smugglers back to Indonesia.
It will be the third time that Thailand returns smuggled apes to Indonesia after sending 14 in 2015 and two more last year to the Southeast Asian neighbor.
Indonesian ambassador to Thailand Ahmad Rusdi on Sunday visited a wildlife protection facility of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi province.
The Ambassador said his main objective was to give morale support to Thai wildlife officials who had taken care of the orangutans as the two countries celebrated the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations this year.
He said the two orangutans Thailand returned to Indonesia in December last year – a nine-year-old female named Kola and a seven-year-old male named Giant – had been in good health at a wildlife sanctuary on Borneo Island.
PrateepHermpitak, head of a regional wildlife conservation office, said Thailand was examining the origins and giving health care to the remaining orangutans before they were set for repatriation.
Thailand has repatriated orangutans to Indonesia under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) which states that confiscated wildlife must be returned to their country of origin.
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