Some of our primates start the journey back to freedom

Nicky, our centre manager in Ciapus, updates us on the latest release of macaques and slow lorises.

The team set off for Lampung, Sumatra yesterday with a group of 12 macaques and four slow lorises. The 12 pig-tailed macaques were supposed to have been released last year but the paperwork has taken ages.

The pre-survey team left for Lampung on 6 June to prepare the habituation cages and, when they let us know that they were almost ready, we started our preparations.

On Wednesday 16 June we started catching the animals at 1400 hrs. They were all weighed and microchipped and blood samples were taken from them. Then in the evening the team set off, arriving in Lampung the next morning for the last stretch of the journey by boat and then on foot.

At the release site the macaques will spend several days in the habituation cage getting used to their surroundings before they are released. Then they will be monitored for about three weeks to make sure they are getting on ok.

News has already come in that they all arrived safely and are already settling in to their new surroundings. So far, so good...!