This drowsy Orangutan is a dead ringer for the mythical Big Foot as he is treated in hospital after being shot by poachers.

The enormous 14-year-old male dwarfed the petite vet as she worked to remove several metal pellets from his body at Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme centre.

The team conduct medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body in Sibolangit district in northern Sumatra island.

The center has cared for over 280 orangutans rescued from palm oil plantations, poachers and pet owners.

Over 200 have been reintroduced in the wild.

The critically-endangered primates population are dwindling rapidly due to poaching and rapid destruction of their forest habitat that is being converted into palm oil plantation.

The great ape was rescued by Indonesia’s ministry of forestry personnel and Orangutan Information Center earlier this week in nearby Langkat district.

He was found in a small patch of forest and agricultural plantation.

SOCP began in 1999.One of its first targets was to establish a quarantine facility for confiscated illegal pets and a reintroduction programme to release these animals back to the wild.

In 2002 the Batu Mbelin orangutan quarantine center was finally completed near Medan in North Sumatra.

SOCP monitors the status of remaining wild orangutan populations in Sumatra using remote sensing and field surveys.

There is a growing problem of human-orangutan conflict, where orangutans at the forest edge are increasingly attacked for raiding the crops of local farmers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2606932/No-not-Big-Foot-Drowsy-orangtutang-shot-poachers-wounds-tended-extended-operating-table-Sumatra.html#ixzz2z9wrgYKs
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