NEW BABY!

Say hi to our new MiniMonos baby, Monti!

Isn't she so cute?

Monti was rescued by International Animal Rescue (IAR) and brought to the emergency rescue transit centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan in Indonesia, last November.

An anonymous caller had contacted local forestry workers, saying that a family had found a young orangutan baby all alone in the jungle and had been taking care of her ever since. But the truth is quite different to this and far more horrible.

Someone had killed Monti's mother to get to her. An orangutan mother would never voluntarily give up her baby. A young orangutan baby can fetch up to $50 which is 2 months salary for a farmer. Then, if she survives, the criminal wildlife trader who has bought her for $50 could sell her for as much as $50,000 overseas!

Monti is still very small and needs an enormous amount of love and care -- just like a human baby! For now she's drinking lots of milk and sleeping a lot, which is normal for an orangutan her size. As she grows she will begin to explore and make new friends, such as Sigit, Malky and Bunga.

What would have happened to Monti if she had not been rescued by the IAR team? She could be dead....or worse: She might have become an illegal pet for a wealthy family in a big capital city of Indonesia. Or she may have been smuggled out of the country and forced to perform a humiliating show for tourists in some animal park in Thailand. Thankfully Monti was saved.

Monti's fate is now in a lot of people's hands -- Orangutan Outreach will do everything they can to work with IAR to make sure Monti has a future -- and that she will have a forest to go back to when she is ready to do so. I'm glad we are also helping her!

Below is a video of some other orangutans who Orangutan Outreach help. Kesi is in this video! I have just found out that Kesi is now 5 years old.

Because it was so hard to decide between Kesi and Monti, here's how we can manage to adopt Kesi too: From today, if we get 250 Gold memberships (of any length) we will also adopt Kesi for a year!

We're really glad we can help Monti have a better life now that she has been rescued.

Let me know if we should help adopt Kesi too!