Bhubaneswar: The five orangutan babies rescued from a forest in Odisha’s Baleshwar district earlier this month will be shifted to a larger enclosure at the Nandankanan Zoological Park here soon, a senior forest official said Sunday.
The five cubs were shifted to the zoo following their rescue and have since been kept in a temperature-controlled quarantine facility, where they are gradually acclimatising to the local environment, he said.
“The health condition of the five orangutan babies is improving. They will be shifted to a larger enclosure after their health completely improves and the quarantine period ends,” said Prem Kumar Jha, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Odisha.
The orangutans are expected to remain in quarantine for one to one-and-a-half months, he said.
Since there are five of them, a special enclosure may be created if required, he added.
Asked whether the orangutans would eventually be kept in an exhibit enclosure at the zoo, Jha said a decision would be taken after their quarantine period and depending on their health condition.
“If we display them in an enclosure at the zoo, we will have to obtain certain statutory clearances,” he said.
The five orangutan cubs were rescued from Bichitrapur forest in Balasore district September 8 and subsequently shifted to Nandankanan Zoo.
The state government has made arrangements for their care and comfort to help them de-stress, officials said.
The animals have displayed a range of behaviour since their rescue, including playful activity, brief mood swings and anxiously clinging to one another, they said.
Nandankanan Zoo already has a special enclosure for orangutans, which has remained vacant since the death of a 41-year-old female orangutan in 2019. The animal had been brought to the zoo from Pune in 2003.
Meanwhile, a joint probe by the Odisha Police’s Special Task Force (STF) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) is underway to determine how the orangutans reached Balasore.
The investigators are looking into the possible involvement of an international wildlife trafficking network, officials said.
