Nenuah up peaks out of her wooden box.
A female orangutan floating hundreds of meters above the ground.
She doesn't know it yet, but this flight will change her life forever.
She's coming home.
The story that lies behind her
is one of cruelty, sadness and ignorance.
And it's also the tale of a multi-billion dollar business.
But how do orangutans end up here?
Normally, Nenuah wouldn't need a helicopter ride to get home.
She would have spent her entire life on the island where she was born.
Borneo, where the helicopter will land,
and Sumatra are the only two places in the world where orangutans are native.
The sad thing is that today orangutans can be found
in many other countries, especially tourist hotspots.
Close encounters with exotic animals are on the bucket list of many travelers
and the wildlife tourism industry has become a lucrative business:
It is now thought to be worth 250 billion U.S. dollars per year.
And while it's not a new industry, social media is setting it ablaze.
Turning encounters with exotic animals into a photo driven bucket-list toppers.
Around 1000 photos are uploaded to Instagram every second.
And among all the images on Instagram, a total of 50 billion,
there are tens of thousands featuring wild animals.
Since 2014, the number of animal selfies posted on social platforms
has gone up by more than 300%.
With the tap of a finger, tourists can send their photos around the globe and post viral
advertisements for attractions that tout up close experiences with animals.
For the holiday makers, these moments capture an instance of joy.
But they are helping to keep this cruel business running.
What is really being done to make these animals
submissive or keep them available for contact with humans is something
that these businesses don't want public.
For all the visibility social media provides,
it doesn't show what happens beyond the view of the camera lens.
Many of the animals suffering for these selfies are orangutans.
With limited space and resources, many attraction operators are failing to provide the animals
with suitable homes, while others exploit their intelligence
and train them to perform in grotesque routines.
In an amusement park in Ho-Chi-Minh-City,
a large male orangutan is kept in a four by five meter enclosure.
He has little more than two boulders for stimulation,
no trees to climb and no place to escape the glare of visitors.
At Bali Zoo, visitors eat breakfast in the presence of multiple orangutans.
Tourists love the place and enjoy the entertainment.
When all the pictures have been taken and the 2 hours of fun are over.
The humans can walk away, but the orangutans
have to stay behind and are brought back to their enclosures.
And at Safari World, a large and glitzy operation on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Orangutans are forced to perform in boxing shows twice a day,
much to the amusement of large crowds.
And when the first show of the day is over,
the second one is just around the corner.
But how do wild orangutans
from Borneo or Sumatra's pristine forests
end up in these tourist attractions?
Most of the animals are simply kidnaped from their natural habitat.
Poachers are specifically on the lookout for mothers with babies
If they find a family,
they cut the tree down, kill or injure the mother
and take the baby.
90% of the young orangutans sent overseas
illegally will end up in Thailand.
For these youngsters and their species, the clock is ticking.
Orangutans are listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.
The destruction of Borneo and Sumatra's jungles for palm oil plantations
makes extinction a near guarantee.
But wildlife smugglers and people who buy the babies as pets
have speeded up the process.
Wild orangutans are stolen fast.
But returning them to their natural habitat
if they're lucky enough to be rescued, is a long and winding road.
It can take decades or maybe even never happen at all.
Only a few are lucky enough to ever return to the wild.
And this is what happened to Nenuah .
After a tragic life, a helicopter brought her back to her native forests.
Luckily, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation came across her.
It was the moment that would change her life.
Since 1991, BOS has been working
tirelessly to protect the Bornean orangutan and its habitat
in cooperation with local communities.
In their rehabilitation center, rescued animals start relearning what it means to be wild.
One of the big milestones is reaching the prerelease islands,
which were created specially for rehabilitating orangutans.
Nenuah spent time on one of these islands and after a total of 14
and a half long years, she was declared ready for release.
Checked over by the vets one last time,
she and the other release candidates are placed into boxes,
ready for takeoff.
One flight later, Nenuah lands safely in Central Kalimantan in Borneo.
Her forest home.
It's the first time she's ever felt the grass of her natural habitat beneath her feet.
Nenuah's story represents a sliver of hope,
but sadly it is not the norm.
Hi, friends.
You can watch the trailer of Eyes of the Orangutan right here.
And don't forget to check out our playlist.
We do have many more stories about human wildlife conflicts.