Eating fruit and drinking from plastic bottles, two Sumatran orangutans stared from their cages at Bangkok airport on Thursday before flying home to Indonesia, years after being smuggled into Thailand.

Two Sumatran orangutans flew home from Thailand years after being captured and smuggled into the country
Two Sumatran orangutans flew home from Thailand years after being captured and smuggled into the country AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Poachers in Southeast Asia frequently capture the critically endangered orangutans to sell as pets, and police said four-year-olds Ung Aing and Natalee were supposed to be sold to a tourism business.

The orangutans were intercepted by Thai police at the Malaysian border in 2017, after they received a tip-off about the vehicle they were in
The orangutans were intercepted by Thai police at the Malaysian border in 2017, after they received a tip-off about the vehicle they were in AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Wildlife traffickers tried to smuggle the two in via Malaysia in June 2017, but they were intercepted at the border -- along with 39 Hamilton tortoises, 12 Indian turtles and six raccoons -- after police received a tip-off about the vehicle they were in.

Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered; but poachers frequently capture them to sell as pets on the black market
Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered; but poachers frequently capture them to sell as pets on the black market AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

The pair have been living in a wildlife rescue centre in Thailand and, once back in Indonesia, will undergo a rehabilitation program before being released back into the wild in Sumatra.

Two critically endangered Sumatran orangutans are flying back to Indonesia, years after they were illegally smuggled into Thailand.
Two critically endangered Sumatran orangutans are flying back to Indonesia, years after they were illegally smuggled into Thailand. AFPTV / Jonathan KLEIN

Ung Aing and Natalee had to take coronavirus tests before their departure, conducted by animal experts from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Poachers are not the only risk orangutans face; their habitat has drastically shrunk over the past few decades
Poachers are not the only risk orangutans face; their habitat has drastically shrunk over the past few decades AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Officials fed the duo bananas, coconuts and electrolytes through a small opening in their cages; hiding in hessian sacks, the animals were shy at first but eventually accepted their treats.

Thai Department of National Parks and Wildlife deputy director general Prakit Vongsrivattanakul said 69 confiscated orangutans have been sent back to Indonesia since 2006, and many have been able to return to the wild.

Even though the two orangutans are now on their way home, their future is still precarious.

Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered and their population is estimated to be fewer than 15,000.

Plantation workers and villagers sometimes attack the animals for being pests.

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