Bali’s drugged, smuggled orangutan headed back to the wild
Asia A baby orangutan that was drugged by a Russian trafficker in a failed bid to smuggle it out o..
Asia
A baby orangutan that was drugged by a Russian trafficker in a failed bid to smuggle it out of Bali will be released back into the wild.
A keeper holds baby orangutan Bon Bon as he prepares to be sent to Sumatra to be released back into the wild. (Photo: AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
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BALI: A baby orangutan that was drugged by a Russian trafficker in a failed bid to smuggle it out of Bali will be released back into the wild.
The case made headlines in March when suspicious authorities on the Indonesian holiday island stopped Andrei Zhestkov, who was flying back to Russia, and opened his luggage to find a two-year-old orangutan sleeping inside a rattan basket.
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Zhestkov, sentenced to a year in prison in July, had packed baby formula and blankets for the orangutan. He was also carrying two live geckos and five lizards inside the suitcase.
READ: Indonesia detains Russian suspected of drugging, smuggling orangutan
On Monday, conservation authorities in Bali rolled out a big fruit plate for fuzzy-haired Bon Bon as he prepares to move to a conservation centre in Sumatra – one of just two places where the critically endangered species is found in the wild.
Bon Bon's caretaker, Ketut Diandika, confessed to being a little bit sad at the ape's departure.
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