Wild animals do not do well in captivity.
Captors often deprive animals of proper living conditions, adequate food, and prevent them from behaving like wild animals. Before releasing them, veterinarians and wildlife keepers must restore their health and wild nature.
Most of the lorises were surrendered by community members and rescued from illegal trade. Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) Located in West Java region. They have since undergone long-term rehabilitation at IAR's Primate Rehabilitation Center in Chiapos, Bogor, West Java.
It is the largest slow loris rescue center and the only center in Indonesia that specializes in slow loris rehabilitation and release. To date, he has rescued more than 1,000 lorises, and in the past 14 years he has released more than 670 back into the wild.
Before being released back into the wild, the loris underwent a recovery and treatment process to stimulate natural behavior. She began with a health check and quarantine period, and she also underwent behavioral observations until she was declared healthy, acclimated to her environment, and finally ready to be released.
Veterinarian Noor Purba Puriambada said that during the lorises' acclimatization period, the field team will continue to observe and record changes in the lorises' behavior over a period of two to four weeks.
release the loris into the forest
Lorises are kept in enclosures at the release site with walls made of plastic fiber sheets and netting. The enclosure supports a variety of trees and plants that provide a natural food source.
“The process of habituation allows lorises to adapt to new habitats before they are finally given full freedom,” said an IAR field staff member who goes by the name Neddy.
If all lorises are active during the acclimatization period and show no abnormal behavior, they can eventually be released.
Mr. Nedi said that the liberation operations that I observed were carried out by a joint team of BKSDA West Java, IAR and local volunteers. They placed the loris in a special cage and transported it to an acclimation enclosure deep in the forest of Gunung Harimun Sarak National Park.
Even after the lorises are released, there is still a long process to ensure their survival in the wild, Neddy said. Every day, the team collects data on the progress of the slow lorises in the acclimation enclosure.
“The team is in the mountains every night,” Neddy said. “They provide food and collect Javanese slow loris feces for research.”
If you do good deeds, you will be released.
Animals can only be released if they exhibit natural behaviors such as foraging, adapting to new environments, and surviving.
Once they are finally released from their enclosures where they have been acclimated to the forest environment, the lorises will be monitored for approximately six months to see if they are successfully defending themselves. To facilitate monitoring, lorises are fitted with satellite collars.
Team members explained that the radio collar's signal range is three kilometers. It sends a signal and the receiver receives it to measure the distance between the slow loris and the surveillance team.
Team members track each animal in the forest every day, recording their physical condition, behavior, food supply, and living conditions.
Neddy said Javanese slow lorises are often active outside their natural habitats, searching for food and shelter in agricultural areas such as coffee and rubber plantations, bamboo forests and villages.
“Then hunters can go in and remove them from those trees, put them in crates and send them off into the wildlife trade,” Neddy said. “It happens at all times of the year, at all ages and genders. It's a really bad situation and the numbers are only going to plummet.”
Social media spreads animal abuse
In recent years, the popularity of YouTube videos showcasing lorises as exotic pets has further fueled the illegal wildlife trade.
However, this internet craze has resulted in thousands of species being poached from the wild and sold illegally on the streets and in animal markets. To make wild primates easier to handle, traders also cut their teeth, which often results in death from blood loss and infection.
In the wild, lorises slowly scrape through branches in search of tree sap and insects. This is in stark contrast to the common way they are raised, where they wake up in broad daylight all day and eat fruit sold at animal markets.
This treatment is torture for Loris. Bright light can damage sensitive eyes, and a diet full of fruit can lead to obesity, tooth decay, diabetes, and kidney failure.
The Javan slow loris is one of the most endangered species in the Nycticebus genus. It is endemic to the Indonesian island of Java, which has a population of 141 million and is one of the most densely populated islands in the world, and the distribution of the Javanese slow loris across the island is severely restricted.
conservation of natural habitats
Apart from hunting and illegal trade, Javanese wildlife has faced loss of natural habitat over the past few decades, threatening loris populations.
Deforestation in Java accounts for only a small percentage of the total deforestation occurring in Indonesia, which is made up of thousands of islands. However, habitat loss poses a major threat to lorises' survival. The expansion of small-scale agricultural land, large-scale monoculture plantations, and infrastructure that supported Indonesia's economic growth has led to the loss and decline of 2,500 hectares of forest per year over the past 25 years. Currently, the forest area of Java Island is only about 24% of the island's area of just over 128,000 square kilometers.
Robitul Huda, program manager at IAR Indonesia in Bogor, said hunting or capturing slow loris in the wild is much cheaper and easier than rehabilitating and releasing them into the wild.
“Rescue and rehabilitation requires a lot of effort and money to return the individual to a suitable environment for release into its natural habitat,” Huda said. This process and stage also takes time and requires strict operational procedures to be followed. Habitat assessment at release sites, acclimation to ensure adaptation and long-term survival, and post-release monitoring are processes that must be strictly followed to give lorises the best chance of returning to the forest and thriving.
Huda said people need to stop thinking of wild animals and endangered species as pets.
“Based on the economic principles of supply and demand, purchasing a loris as a pet directly contributes to facilitating the illegal trade,” Huda said. “Hunting will therefore continue as long as there is demand. For this reason, we urge the public never to purchase or keep slow lorises as pets, as this is tantamount to exploitation of slow lorises.” .”
