KORC - Kinabatangan Orang-utan Rescue Centre

Animal mantles have proved very popular. Becoming a rescue centre lends itself well to creating tensions and dilemmas.

Collaborative work, planning where to put the new feeding platforms without disturbing the existing habitats and avoiding the pygmy elephant routes.

During one spring term, my 5/4 class became K.O.R.C. This was a registered charity based in Malaysian Borneo on the Kinabatangan River, which specialises in the rescue and rehabilitation of sick and injured orang-utans. K.O.R.C had been founded by Anna Caley six years previously and she had gathered many voluntary workers since. A team of newly qualified scientists arrived*, to conduct some research on the rehabilitation of the orang-utans. This has been an exciting event for KORC, drawing a lot of positive attention to the charity, including from the National Geographic Society, who filmed part of a documentary at the centre.

After being alerted by one of their voluntary workers, who was on holiday in Thailand, that 48 orang-utans were being kept illegally in a theme park in Bangkok, KORC got straight on the case to rectify this terrible situation. The poor creatures were being subjected to cruel conditions and trained to participate in kick-boxing shows. After a peaceful protest and the completition of many petitions, the Thai government invited K*O*R*C to present their case.

When K*O*R*C members presentations reminded them that it was against one of their own laws to keep endangered animals, the government had no choice but to intervene. K*O*R*C further persuaded them to donate money and help transport the orang-utans back to Borneo, to the rescue centre.

It was a tough job persuading the government to help - they were quite picky!

But the persuasive members of KORC manged to get the theme park shut down and the orang-utans taken to safety, ready for transportation to Borneo.

Once the orang-utans were safely at the rescue centre, we realised what a tough job it would be. There were not enough feeding platforms and many were too small, like this one. The team had to design and create new ones. Thorough health checks showed the poor condition of some of the orang-utans and tradgedy struck when one of the orang-utans died. An autopsy showed the terrible effects left from his kick-boxing days. The orang-utans needed a lot of medical care and love to help them become healthy and happy again.

Interview with an orang-utan
After the health checks showed how sick some of the orang-utans were, the volunteers at KORC got together to come up with a nutritious food supplement to make sure that the orang-utans got a balanced diet.

It seemed that a soon as one problem was
resolved, another one happened! Everyone
was shocked when a letter came from the bank
saying that the charity had no money left. The
quick thinking workers and volunteers came up
with a range of fund raising ideas, which soon
got the rescue centre back on its feet.

* The children had completed an enquiry, inspired by an assembly on the raft spiders at a local fen. They wrote reports as a 'degree' assignment, then attended their graduation ceremonies when they passed. As newly qualified scientists, they were nearly all happy to join KORC ... apart from one scientist. Professor Rusted decided he would rather go to the North Pole. His reasons? "It's colder there and I don't want to be too far away from my wife and family.' The other scientists were so disappointed to lose a team member, that they did everything in their power to get him to change his mind. Luckily, they were so persuasive that he did!