Rescuer of Abused Primates

Name: Rescuer of Abused Primates
Uploaded: 2021-02-09T04:41:41Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Once a wildlife hunter, Sigit Ibrahim (32) has changed and is now a caretaker and rescuer of animals. For more than a decade, he has been a friend to primates that were subject to human abuse.

Once a wildlife hunter, Sigit Ibrahim (32) has changed and is now a caretaker and rescuer of animals. For more than a decade, he has been a friend to primates that were subject to human abuse.

· 6 minutes read

Once a wildlife hunter, Sigit Ibrahim (32) has changed and is now a caretaker and rescuer of animals. For more than a decade, he has been a friend to primates that were subject to human abuse.

Maria, a 4-year-old East Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus), urinated suddenly when officers of the Javanese Primate Rehabilitation Center-Aspinall Foundation (PRPJ-Aspinall) came on Wednesday (3/2/2021) to feed her leaves of the red calliandra.

Her urine almost hit Sigit and another officer who were standing below her. Another langur perched beside Maria also starting acting up. The orange-furred animal immediately jumped into the corner of the enclosure, which measured 2 meters by 2 meters and was around 3 meters tall. She usually avoids any humans who approach her.

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Sigit laughed with joy when he saw the response of the two langurs, saying that their behavior showed that the rehabilitation center had succeeded in its efforts to rehabilitate the two primates. He believed they would soon be ready for releasing back into their natural habitat this year.

“Their behavior suggests that they are healthy and ready to be released. Clear urine, for instance, shows that the primate is not dehydrated,” explained Sigit.

Their condition today differs greatly from when the langurs were rescued last August. Like most primates kept as “pets’ by humans, the two langurs had lost their natural instincts and survival skills. For instance, they had become used to walking on their hind legs instead of hanging or swinging from trees. This was because the cage where they were kept was small and had no space for them to hang or swing.

Their behavior suggests that they are healthy and ready to be released.

Sigit had once rescued another primate, a Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) that lived just like a human, eating human food and sleeping in a bed. The gibbon, named Puput, needed almost five years of rehabilitation before her animal instincts and survival skills were restored.

“Domesticated wildlife cannot be returned to their natural habitat. They would be an easy target for predators. Gibbons should be swinging in the trees. This is why, at this rehabilitation center, we try to minimize contact between humans and wildlife and give them room to communicate with [other] wild animals,” he said.

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Learn more

Sigit’s adventure in rescuing captured and illegally sold Javan primates with PRPJ-Aspinall began in 2011. Aside from Javan langurs, the primate rehabilitation center also rescues Javan gibbons and Javan surilis (Presbytis comata).

Spanning 12 hectares, the rehabilitation center is located across the mountains of Tikukur and Patuha in Bandung regency, West Java. This year, along with the two langurs, it is rehabilitating 55 other primates in 28 enclosures.

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His dedication to wildlife rescue and rehabilitation did not emerge overnight. When he was younger, he hunted wildlife with his father using homemade weapons. He stopped hunting wildlife in 1998 after he was reprimanded by a security authority.

“It was then that I became aware that wildlife hunting was wrong. My father has also stopped hunting since then. We are now committed to environmental protection,” said Sigit.

Leaving behind his homemade weapons, Sigit decided to volunteer in forest protection. In 2006, he helped fight the fires ravaging Mount Tilu. There, he met Made Wedana, the country director of the Aspinall Foundation Indonesia Program, who asked him to join the foundation. “For me, it was like an opportunity to redeem my past sins as a wildlife hunter,” said Sigit.

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Sigit’s love for primates started to grow as he worked as a research assistant alongside Made. He started by caring for wild animals before he was promoted as the PRPJ-Aspinall operational manager earlier this year.

Rescuing wildlife is no easy feat. He has been bitten, scratched and had his hair pulled. Sigit has a permanent scar on his wrist from a langur bite in 2018 that required 10 stitches.

Regardless, he is happy with his life choice. He has learned numerous lessons, from surveying wildlife distribution to understanding the role of wildlife in nature conservation. He has also learned various techniques for rehabilitating humanized and abused primates.

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Two such techniques involve placing the animals’ food at a great height and cultivating a variety of tree species that are native to the primates’ natural habitat. One example is the saninten tree, also called sarangan. They have strong roots that grip the soil and also provide the tastiest fruit for surilis, and have great antibiotic properties.

Another is the rasamala tree, which has leaves that are great for surilis that have indigestion. Other species include the Medan tree (Cinnamomum porrectum) and pasang trees (Lithocarpus sundaicus). The leaves of these trees are effective antirheumatic treatments.

“These trees are also useful for humans in preventing landslides and [using] as traditional medicine. Ironically, they are no longer commonly found. It feels like surilis are reminding us about the country’s important natural resources,” said Sigit.

Not only are they the natural habitat of primates, trees also provide a great location for mating. Primates often communicate with each other in the trees and learn how to survive together.

These trees are also useful for humans in preventing landslides and [using] as traditional medicine.

“We are like a dating agency here, particularly for Javan gibbons. They are usually released into their natural habitat together with their mate, since gibbons are monogamous,” said Sigit.

Rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife does not stop once the animal is released. Regular monitoring is conducted for at least a week after the animal has been released.

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There are three spots in West Java for wildlife release: the Mt. Tilu Nature Reserve and near Patenggang Lake in Bandung regency, and Mt. Burangrang in West Bandung regency.

For people

Sigit added that the center had released 71 primates to date. Many of the released animals are living independently and reproducing in the wild. This had motivated him further and strengthened his dedication to rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife.

For him, wildlife rescue is about more than increasing the wildlife population. He believes that the existence of wildlife is intertwined with human welfare.

For example, he said that surilis played an important role in distributing tree seeds. If many trees grew, Mt. Tilu could continue to provide water for people through the 20 rivers that flow from it.