Animal Rescue
Indonesia is home to a rich variety of animals both in the water and on land. Our team in Bali is engaged in efforts to help these animals, as well as local pets.
Animal Rescue by the Numbers
In 2025:
Total animals rescued: 79
- Macaca fascicularis / Long-tailed macaque : 28 individual
- Macaca nemestrina / Pig-tailed macaque : 4 individual
- Chelonia mydas / Green sea turtle : 26 individual
- Eretmochelys imbircata / Hawksbill sea turtle : 2 individual
- Lepidochelys olivacea / Olive ridley turtle : 1 individual
- Rhyticeros undulatus / Wreathed hornbill : 1 individual
- Otus angelinae / Javan scops owl : 2 individual
- Hystrix javanica / Sunda porcupine : 1 individual
- Nisaetus cirrhatus / Changeable hawk-eagle : 1 individual
- Lophospiza trivirgata / Crested goshawk : 1 individual
- Manis javanica / Sunda pangolin : 2 individual
- Prionailurus bengalensis / Leopard cat : 4 individual
- Muntiacus muntjak / Indian muncak : 3 individual
- Tiliqua nigrolutea / Blue-tongued skink : 1 individual
- Python regius / Ball-phyton : 1 individual
- Varanus sp. / Monitor lizard : 1 individual
Total animals confiscated: 2041
Sea turtle
- Chelonia mydas / Green sea turtle : 56 individual
Bird :
- Pycnonotus goiavier / Yellow-vented bulbul : 776 individual
- Ploceus manyar / Streaked weaver : 276 individual
- Lanius Schach / Shrike : 55 individual
- Geokichla citrina / Orange-headed thrush : 85 individual
- Orthotomus sepium / Olive-backed tailorbird : 234 individual
- Zosterops melanurus / Indian white-eye : 154 individual
- Saxicola caprata / Pied bush chat : 2 individual
- Sitta frontalis / Velvet-fronted nuthatch : 4 individual
- Cyornis olivacea / Fulvous-chested jungle flycatcher (bird) : 203 individual
- Parus major / Great tit : 1 individual
- Dicaeum celebicum / Grey-sided flowerpecker : 1 individual
- Copsychus malabaricus / White-rumped shama : 2 individual
Total animals released: 2085
- Macaca fascicularis / Long-tailed macaque : 15 individual
- Chelonia mydas / Green sea turtle : 51 individual
- Hystrix javanica / Sunda porcupine : 1 individual
- Manis javanica / Sunda pangolin : 2 individual
- Lophospiza trivirgata / Crested goshawk : 1 individual
- Pycnonotus goiavier / Yellow-vented bulbul : 776 individual
- Ploceus manyar / Streaked weaver : 276 individual
- Lanius Schach / Shrike : 55 individual
- Geokichla citrina / Orange-headed thrush : 85 individual
- Orthotomus sepium / Olive-backed tailorbird : 234 individual
- Zosterops melanurus / Indian white-eye : 154 individual
- Saxicola caprata / Pied bush chat : 2 individual
- Sitta frontalis / Velvet-fronted nuthatch : 4 individual
- Cyornis olivacea / Fulvous-chested jungle flycatcher (bird) : 203 individual
- Parus major / Great tit : 1 individual
- Dicaeum celebicum / Grey-sided flowerpecker : 1 individual
- Copsychus malabaricus / White-rumped shama : 2 individual
- Eumyias indigo / Indigo flycatcher : 2 individual
- Mirafra javanica / Lark : 30 individual
- Lanius ludovicianus / Shrike : 48 individual
- Prinia familiaris / Bar-winged prinia : 114 individual
- Cinnyris jugularis / Garden sunbird : 23 individual
- Aegithina tiphia / Common iora : 3 individual
- Alophoixus bres / Grey-checked bulbul : 2 individual
In 2024:
- Rescued and treated 18 long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)
- Rescued and treated 2 Southern Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina)
- Rescued and treated 49 endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) who were confiscated, sick and/or stranded
- Rescued 1 olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) who was stranded
- Responded and treated 1 Coucal (Centropus sp) who was sick
- Responded to 1 Bulbul (Pycnonotus sp) who was sick
- Confiscated 168 Yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier)
- Confiscated 78 Olive-backed tailorbird (Orthotomus sepium)
- Confiscated 41 Bare-throated whistler (Pachycephala nudigula)
- Responded to 1 Timor Deer (Cervus timorensis) who was sick
- Responded to 1 Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) who was sick
- Confiscated 1 Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)
- Responded to 1 Yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) who was sick
In 2023:
- Established a dedicated Turtle Hospital at the Umah Lumba Center
- Rescued and treated 102 endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) who were confiscated, sick and/or stranded
- Rescued and treated 2 olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) who were sick
- Rescued and treated 1 timor deer (Cervus timorensis) who was caught in a snare
- Rescued and treated 18 long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)
- Rescued and treated 1 yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea occidentalis) who was neglected by its previous owner
- Rescued and treated 1 brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) who was sick
- Rescued and treated 1 river otter (Amblonyx cinereus) who was sold at a market
- Rescued and treated 1 Sundanese pangolin (Manis javanica) who was found floating in the middle of the sea
- Necropsied 3 whale sharks (Rhyncodon typus) who were stranded
- Necropsied 2 sperm whales (Physeter macrocephaalus) who were stranded
- Necropsied 2 spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) who were stranded
- Necropsied 2 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus and Tursiops truncatus.) who were stranded
In 2022:
- Rescued 15 monkeys who were kept chained in cages, or escaped from previous owners who kept them as pets
- Rescued and treated 1 javan deer (Rusa timorensis) who was attacked by wild dogs
- Rescued and relocated 9 snakes who needed to be evacuated from people’s homes
- Rescued and treated 3 endangered green sea turtles
- Rescued and treated 5 Brazilian red-cheeked mud turtles, a species not native to Indonesia (Kinosternon scorpioodes cruentatum)
In 2021:
- 8 elephants (from an elephant riding facility in Bali that went bankrupt)
- 3 sun bears (from an elephant riding facility in Bali that went bankrupt)
- 7 long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)
- 1 sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)
- 1 critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
No-Cost Vet Clinic
Dolphin Project operates a no-cost veterinary clinic in Bali. We provide no-cost spay, neutering and emergency veterinary care for pets of local residents.
- 2025: 57 dogs and 40 cats treated, 14 cats sterilized, 87 dogs and 40 cats vaccinated against rabies, and 3 cats adopted
- 2024: 107 dogs and 70 cats treated, 12 dogs and 36 cats sterilized, 65 dogs and 28 cats vaccinated against rabies, and 5 dogs and 7 cats adopted
- 2023: 26 cats and 40 dogs sterilized, 81 cats and dogs vaccinated against rabies, 182 domestic animals treated, and 13 stray cats fostered
- 2022: 151 dogs sterilized
- 2021: 69 dogs sterilized
Support wildlife rescue efforts with a symbolic adoption! Your adoption will help support veterinary care, field costs for animal rescue and release, and ongoing maintenance of the Umah Lumba Center.
Education Center
In the village next to the Umah Lumba Rehabilitation, Release and Retirement Center is a place where kids learn, and have fun doing so! The Umah Lumba Education Center is a free school, but effective in its engaging methods of teaching. The children have much fun learning, while gaining an appreciation for their natural world. We have 44 regular students in our school, and 25 visiting students from outside the village.
Tree Planting
In efforts to be 100% carbon neutral and to help protect the coastline and marine ecosystem in West Bali, to-date our Dolphin Project team in Indonesia has planted over 37,700 mangrove seedlings and coconut trees.
- 2020: 5,000 trees planted
- 2021: 6,200 trees planted
- 2022: 10,000 trees planted
- 2023: 6,500 trees planted
- 2024: 10,000 trees planted
Stranding Response
The local Dolphin project team is part of a quick response cetacean stranding team for bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, pilot whales, Bryde’s whales and more. Stranding response cases include:
- In September 2020, we helped respond to a call to help a wild Irrawaddy dolphin that was lost inside a river in the Sumatra area. When we heard the news our field coordinator immediately went to the location to coordinate a rescue operation with local authorities and NGO Cinta Satwa Riau. After evaluation and medical examinations, the joint team relocated and released her in nearby deeper waters.
- In February 2021 we received news that a mass stranding of pilot whales had taken place far east of Java island, on the northeastern Indonesian island of Madura. Our team worked hard alongside local authorities on site.
- In April 2021 we assisted in the successful relocation and release of a stranded Risso’s dolphin. Thank you to JAAN, #BKSDABali, PSDKP, BPSPL DPS, NCF, Flying Vet Citizens of Tembles, and Pejarakan Nature Community!
- In 2023, we responded to three whale shark strandings, two bottlenose dolphin strandings, two spinner dolphin strandings, and two sperm whale strandings – in all cases, the animals had already died.
- In 2024, we responded to one sperm whale stranding — in this case, the mammal had already died.
- In 2025, we responded to nine animal strandings.
Our team also periodically holds marine mammal stranding workshops. Participants include government officials, and we help teach the safe handling of marine mammals during stranding events.
Your support is a vital part of these campaigns, as well as our work to put an end to dolphin slaughter and captive exploitation worldwide. Become a Dolphin Defender by supporting our work today!
