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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=orangutan&ei=UTF-8&n=20&fl=0&x=wrt

Thai Scientists Begin Probe in Big Orangutan Case

Mon Sep 20, 6:54 AM ET 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai scientists began an investigation Monday into what 
some
conservationists believe could be the world's biggest case of ape smuggling 
-- nearly 100
orangutan found in a Bangkok amusement park. 
  
Researchers from Thailand's Kasetsart University began collecting hair, 
saliva and blood
samples from the Safari World apes for DNA tests which should determine 
whether the
endangered orangutan were smuggled in from Indonesia. 

"This case is actually very significant," said Edwin Wiek, director of the 
Wildlife
Friends Rescue Center that treats abused animals near Bangkok. 

"We've had cases of seven or eight chimpanzees being smuggled, but there's 
never been a
case so big. Over a hundred orangutan found only in one place," he said. 

Experts say the DNA testing will pinpoint the birthplace of the orangutan to 
within a few
hundred kilometers in an investigation reaching a climax as Thailand prepares 
to host an
international environment conference in October. 

If the orangutan are found to be from Indonesia, they will be repatriated and 
the owners
of the Safari World amusement park would be prosecuted, police say. 

The owners of Safari World said initially their 115 orangutan were a result 
of a
successful breeding program, but have now admitted buying a number of them 
illegally,
police investigator Aroon Promphanapes told Reuters. 

"The owners said they got 45 of the orangutan through an exchange with 
someone in
Thailand. Who they made the deal with and what they exchanged for the 
animals, we do not
know yet," he said. 

The DNA results should be known in about a month, when hundreds of delegates 
meet in
Bangkok for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species 
(CITES)
conference. 

"I think we should really consider for the future how these cases are dealt 
with," Wiek
said. 

"In the 10 months that this case has been going, the animals are still in the 
same place,
13 of them have died in circumstances we don't know about and I'm really 
concerned about
the welfare of these animals," he said. 

Indonesia has also expressed concern for the animals with protesters 
demonstrating
outside the Thai embassy in Jakarta last month to demand the immediate return 
of the
orangutan. 

Fewer than 30,000 orangutan are left in the jungles of Malaysia and 
Indonesia. 

Animal rescue groups have offered to pay for the repatriation of the animals 
if they are
found to have come from Indonesia. The apes will then need to be 
rehabilitated and
released into the wild in a process which could take several years.