SANDAKAN, Nov 22 — The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) has marked a new milestone with its orang-utan work by being the first in the world to use transmitter implants to monitor some primates that are returned to the wild.
“Over the years, we have been actively releasing a small number of orang-utans back into the forest, however we have had no way of monitoring them after release,” said SWD director Laurentius Ambu in a statement.
Being primates with hands like humans made placing a radio-tracking collar on orang-utans impossible as they could easily take it off, he added.
The SWD worked together with Dr Christian Waltzer and Dr Thierry Petit from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Austria to overcome the problem with the first field trial with orang-utans from the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre in late September.
“Before coming to Sabah, Dr Waltzer and Dr Petit tested this method on captive orang-utans in France on March 18 to see whether it had any harmful effects to the orang-utan,” said Laurentius.
“Following their success in France, my department then proceeded with their assistance to implant three orang-utans in Sepilok in late September,” he said.
But he stressed that as custodians of this iconic species the safety and welfare of the orang-utans was of utmost importance.
SWD chief field veterinarian Dr Senthilvel Nathan said the three orang-utans chosen are doing well and SWD rangers in Sepilok are monitoring them daily.
“After the surgery to place the implants, we have been watching them closely and our rangers have had time to practice with the tracking equipment in the jungle of Sepilok; we are confident about using this method,” said Senthilvel.
“The transmitter is placed in the neck area where the skin is thick and has fat deposits; we can also turn the device on and off using a magnet without having to surgically remove it first,” he added.
The transmitters are about the size of a 50-sen coin (35mm in diameter) and are 10mm wide.
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