Outcomes of orangutan wild-to-wild translocations reveal conservation and welfare risks

Citation

Sherman J, Voigt M, Ancrenaz M, Meijaard E, Oram F, Williamson EA, Russon AE, Seaman DJI, Caurant C, Byler D & Wich SA (2025) Outcomes of orangutan wild-to-wild translocations reveal conservation and welfare risks. PLoS ONE, 20 (3), p. 26, Art. No.: journal.pone.0317862. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0317862; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317862

Abstract
Wild orangutans (Pongo spp.) are captured and moved (wild-to-wild translocated) primarily to prevent crop foraging or out of concern for orangutans' survival in fragmented habitat. Little is known about wild-to-wild translocation frequency, circumstances, and possible species conservation and individual welfare outcomes. We investigated orangutan wild-to-wild translocations in Indonesia from 2005 to 2022 using primarily data from public sources and consultation with practitioners. At least 988 wild orangutans were captured for translocation during the study period, including many reproductively valuable resident females and adult males removed from unprotected fragmented forests and forest patches. Data on health condition (n = 808) indicated 81.7% were reported as healthy at time of capture. Information on post-capture disposition (n = 268) showed that only 23% were translocated immediately. Mean estimated killing combined with reported translo-cation removals was calculated to affect 3.3% of orangutans in Kalimantan, and 11.6% in Sumatra, both higher than the threshold of mortality from human actions expected to drive populations to extinction. Negative impacts are likely compounded where multiple individuals are translocated from the same area, and for the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis), which has the smallest population and range of all orangutan species. Data on reasons for capture (n = 743) indicated most translocations (69%) were conducted to address crop foraging and orangutan presence in or around croplands and plantations. Forest cover analysis around 104 orangutan capture sites with high resolution spatial information indicated that deforestation levels in the year preceding capture were not significantly associated with likelihood of captures for translocation. To improve conservation outcomes, wild-to-wild translocations should be used only in exceptional circumstances. Most orangutans.

Notes
PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317862 March 19, 2025 1 / 26 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Sherman J, Voigt M, Ancrenaz M, Meijaard E, Oram F, Williamson EA, et al. (2025) Outcomes of orangutan wild-to-wild translocations reveal conservation and welfare risks. PLoS ONE 20(3): e0317862. https://doi. Editor: Sheikh Arslan Sehgal, Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, PAKISTAN Copyright: Data availability statement: All data necessary to replicate the analyses are presented in data repositories, with additional details in the S1 Appendix Supporting Information file. All code necessary to conduct the analyses presented in this study has been deposited in a GitHub repository (https://github.com/MariaVoigt/ Habitat_loss_translocation_analysis), with the input data available on Zenodo (https:// RESEARCH ARTICLE 8 Independent Conservation Consultant, Lannion, France, 9 IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section on Great Apes, c/o Re:wild, Austin, Texas, United States of America, 10 Re:wild, Austin, Texas, United States of America, 11 ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work.

• Outcomes of orangutan wild-to-wild translocations reveal conservation and welfare risks