Orangutans, Asia's only great ape, are highly endangered due to habitat loss and the pet trade. Wanariset is an orangutan rehabilitation center, located in the southeastern part of the island of Borneo. Though owning an orangutan is illegal, the demand for orangutan babies as pets is still very high. Hundreds of infants are orphaned every year when their mothers are shot, their skulls often sold to tourists as "antiques." Their babies are then sold as pets. Though orangutan babies are extraordinarily appealing as dependent infants, they quickly grow into unmanageable and unwanted houseguests. They are also highly susceptible to human diseases and often become very ill.

In order to enforce the laws surrounding the pet trade, the government must confiscate orangutans from private hands. The problem remains: what do you do with these confiscated animals, numbering in the hundreds? Wanariset is attempting to give these individuals a chance to return to the wild. They take in these animals, often malnourished and ill. They are quarantined to eliminate the risk of infecting other orangutans with contagious diseases.

They are placed in large socialization cages to begin the long process of learning how to be orangutans. In these areas they also develop climbing skills and much-needed muscle tone. They are introduced to the fruits and leaves of the forest that technicians cut from the forest every day. When the time comes for them to be released, a group of young orangutans is brought to an area of protected forest where orangutans historically ranged, but in which no wild orangutans currently reside. The newly released orangutans will fill their important ecological niche in the forest and there is no risk that the rehabilitation will negatively impact the wild population.

Unfortunately, rehabilitating orangutans is an expensive undertaking. Zoo Atlanta primate keepers began a grassroots fundraising and education program in the fall of 1994. Money they have raised has been used to pay for shipping over 500 lbs of donated medial supplies to the veterinary clinic at Wanariset.