ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several key debates around methods in orangutan rehabilitation and reintroduction (R&R), following the chronological order in which they occur. It begins by exploring debates about care for juvenile rehabilitants in a context where bonding with caregivers must be balanced with “dehumanisation”. It then considers debates about whether to allow taxonomic hybridisation at release sites, and deciding which individuals are “unreleasable”. Finally, it turns to debates around monitoring, medically treating, and feeding orangutans after release. While each example raises its own unique questions, running throughout the chapter are questions around how to weigh, define, and foster the values of wildness, welfare, and freedom. While ethics shape R&R methods, so too do ideas about orangutan behaviour and biology, and resource constraints. In the absence of comprehensive post-release data, deciding whose method is best may require appealing to the greatest “expert”, a task which is fraught with further challenges.
