Guest guest Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 Dear Friends of the Orangutan, Several weeks ago, I promised a second installment of my update from Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Borneo. Unfortunately, my laptop crashed before I could make a backup of that update, and I am only just now catching up with everything! What follows is gleaned from my personal notes, and there are some gaps (when I didn’t write for one reason or another), but I hope it will give you a little further insight into the everyday life at the project. I believe I left off on or about New Year’s Day. 3 January 2005 Most of what I have written so far has been written directly on the laptop for the school-children’s e-journal. That takes a fair amount of time and my personal notes suffer as a result. Today was my first day off quarantine, and I spent the day in the forest with Bahawan. As soon as I put him down he went straight for the forest, the same spot as yesterday, thick with undergrowth and a perfect place plant oneself. I put up my hammock and watched him explore his world, or at least that part of it which was within arm’s reach, for a couple of hours. I looked away for a moment or two to watch some work being done on the baby house, and when I looked back he was gone. I really didn’t think he could have gone far, but the forest floor was dense. I spent half an hour searching for him and calling his name, occasionally looking up to see if he had actually decided to climb a tree. I finally found him deep in the darkness on the forest floor, about 20 metres from his previous location, and here he was lying back and peacefully exploring THIS world within arm’s reach. He just looked up at me and gave a little squeak, as if to say, “yeah, thought I’d come here for awhile- isn’t a problem, is it?” I let Bahawan stay there for another hour or so, as I beat off the mosquitos threatening to carry me away, then decided to move him to a slightly more inhabitable spot-say by my hammock and water bottle? As I carried him, Bahawan would reach out for branches to try to stop us, and I eventually gave in and left him on a branch he had grasped. A bit surprised that I had deposited him there, he awkwardly climbed down and began his exploration thing. Some time later, we made a move again to a more open spot, where there was a narrow tree bent in a perfect upside-down U-shape. I hung him there…and there he stayed, not sure what to do next. Finally, it occurred to him to pull his feet up too for better grip, and so carefully make his way, upside down, along the branch to the floor. I climbed a huge, ridiculously bendy liana and perched myself about 5 metres up, hoping to coax Bahawan or at least provide a model of normal orangutan behaviour. He looked at me as if I was mad. Jolan appeared with some fruit, and for this, Bahawan actually ventured out of his hiding place to get the food, although he took an unexplainably long way round. I went to eat my lunch while Jolan babysat, and came back with some milk and juice (as well as my backpack and hammock which had been abandoned so many hours before!) Bahawan had eaten almost all of what Jolan had brought. He drank about 200 ml of the milk and a sip of the juice. To join him, I took a long swig of my water and found it full of dead ants. Knowing that orangutans don’t mind ants in their water quite as much as I did, I offered him mine. He drank the lot (about 600ml)! Such a change in appetite is such a promising sign! After some time to digest, Bahawan actually took it upon himself to climb the U shaped tree! He got about 1.5 metres up, on the apex of the bend, where he sat and steadied himself by clutching (for dear life) an upright tree that grew centimeters away. Offered a fruit he didn’t dare let go. He stayed in this position for a long while, interrupted only by his need to defecate, which appeared to be the purpose of the climb, because once this difficult task was completed, he was ready to descend again. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite sure how to do this. He was too unsteady to walk along the top of the tree like a monkey, so he managed to get himself hanging upside down by all fours. But at this point, he forgot what to do next. He hung and hung, and then his grip started to loosen. Like someone hanging onto the edge of the cliff, it was nearing the moment when one would plummet (in this case all of 1.5 meters). I couldn’t let that happen, so I gathered him in my arms and deposited him safely on the floor again. Another bout of reclined forest floor exploration ensued as I relaxed in my hammock, some metres away. Bahawan made his way over the tangle of roots to me and touched my hand, letting out a squeak. It was a huge move for him. I stroked his head and back until he went to sleep. I would doze off and he’d wake me by putting my hand back in its rightful place on his head. Life was grand. When we both woke up, I tried to palce him in my hammock beside me, but he wasn’t ready for THAT level of intimacy yet. On the walk home, Bahawan held on tightly to me for the first time (with his hands but still not his feet). I gave him a box in his cage, which he threw out, as well as his leaves, but a towel he happily took. He ate a cucumber and drank another 400 ml of milk. He crawled into his nesting basket and immediately fell asleep with his towel, and I imagine with that pleasant feeling of exhaustion after a physically demanding day. I was excited to reacquaint myself with some of the orangutans from Baby School: Sumo, Nabima, Martizen, etc. However, at three years old or so, they aren’t babies anymore. They are huge, strong and extremely rambunctious. I think I was beaten up worse by this group of orangutans than I have ever been before! In the past, it was 1 or 2 biters, but today: Bim Bim, Nabima, Sumo, Koko, Fito, Dancow and about a half dozen others bit and thumped me relentlessly, and tore my hair to bits. I am covered with welts and my hands ache from the crushing bites. To be fair, some DIDN’T bother me and only Kai was cuddly and sweet. Keke came down to see me for a moment, but preferred to play. My Martizen is scared of me. Holly gave me a sniff, but she doesn’t know me anymore. Mickey was quite amiable. Sumo went all in for the boots, as he always did, but now he is so strong he’s nearly removing my foot with the boot in one. I was exhausted and filthy by the end of it all. I think it is time to leave these guys to get on with their confident progress; they don’t need so much attention as they once may have. This evening is particularly noisy in the forest…. 4th January 2005 A personally awful day, as I went to town early and didn’t get back till after dark. When we got back I went to look in on Bahawan. He was curled up in his nesting basket and I whispered, “Selamat tidur, sayang (good night, sweetheart)” and boy! Did he start to talk! He came straight down to greet me and have a chat and get stroked. I gave him a big shirt to curl up in. He got back into his basket and went to sleep. I felt guilty for not looking after him, but David said he did well in the forest that day: he climbed a tree and ate well. In the evening, I went over to Lone’s. There are 20 small babies in the nursery, being looked after 24/7. Missy is one month old and weighs 1.8 kg, and there were other extremely tiny ones. One little guy was straight into my arms and slept with his head on my chest so comfortably. I met little Fio, the one who looked dead in the photo. She looks great. Lykke is the new Nabima, Lone’s special little girl (and star of Growing Up Orangutan from Animal Planet). She adores a toy I brought which was different sized donuts which stack on a pole. She contentedly dismantles it to play with the donuts, and gets cross if you put it back together again after she has so carefully taken it apart. She was awake the latest of the lot. Every now and then, a head would pop up from a basket, and then someone would sit up or get out of their basket, usually making no noise at all. Get a drink and go happily back to sleep. The most I heard was a little squeak every now and then from the littlest once, announcing they were hungry. It was delightful and peaceful to be amongst them, but also extremely heart-rending, to think of all their personal tragedies and lost mothers in such young and innocent lives. 5th January 2005 Today, it rained and it rained. Not the kind of weather to endear an impressionable young Bahawan to the joys of forest life. So I spent my time with him in his cage, feeding him and stroking him and tickling him. (I always remember Lone’s insistence that tickling the orangutans everyday is standard operational procedure, and is not to be overlooked). He held my hand and inspected it for a long, long time. He was quite fussy about his food today, and ate only rambutan, mangosteen and mango ( my favourite fruits as well). I gave him some twigs and leaves which occupied him for awhile as he practiced his next-making. This is a positive step after always chucking out his branches as soon as they are delivered. When the babies came in from the forest, one little guy walking out was screaming frantically, ran straight up to me and buried himself in my arms. I suppose he was just too tired and so wanted to be carried home, so I obliged him. It made me think of human toddlers getting cranky at the end of a day of shopping and desperate to be carried. When we got to their play area (a separate area near the info centre), he still held tightly, as well as a few others. I was told the little one in my arms was Putih. These guys were all still sweet and gentle, the way my now boisterous friends had once been. I could easily stay with them. But the need for insect repellent was great, and I felt I wanted to stay a bit longer with Bahawan. When Bahawan went to sleep, I fetched a hard ball that makes mewing sounds that I bought yesterday. One orangutan walked straight up to me and using his hands, politely requested I give it to him. He would play with it, then stand up and hand it back to me gently. I’d throw it in the air and catch it a few times, and he’d laugh. I’d throw it up one more time and let him catch it, but he couldn’t and it usually ended up banging someone on the head. It was a very popular toy, and I had about 10 orangutans at my feet, or holding my hands, interested in it but not fighting over it. I only got a couple of nips from Taruna, Bim Bim and very nearly “Fatal Fito.” No-one else bothered me today, most were sweet. Pundu wanted to be held most of the time; he was extremely gentle. Holly was scared of the ball and hugged my ankles for protection. I was relieved that today I did not have to resort to getting out my water pistol or T Rex for personal security. Four youngsters are on IV tonight in the clinic. I hope to find them improved in the morning. 6th January 2005 A wonderful day! (Only that the water cut out at 8 am and it still isn’t on as I write late in the evening. I’m collecting rainwater tonight so that perhaps I can wash in the morning.) Bahawan and I joined Baby Group B today in the forest, which included Tara, Dewey, Indi, and others. Bahawan held tightly as I made my ways on the logs over the swamp, but was happy to finally be set down when we reached our drier destination. After a couple pieces of fruit, he climbed straight up a long, narrow tree, some 15 metres up, where he stayed for about a half hour or so. He had some difficulty getting down, but he did in the end, not without a lot of frightened squeaking. He was scared of the other orangutans, and ran to me if they got too near or touched him. He could sit quite close to them, but he had to be sure that they weren’t going to ganggu (bother) him. The minute they showed more interest in him than whatever they had been doing, he needed to be held and reassured. He required a lot of touches and hand-holding today, but he was also able to sit on his own sometimes. He even played with the babysitter’s hammock as she swung in it, catching and pulling its sides or smacking her bottom as it passed. He has learnt quite quickly how to make the hammock swing harder. Both she and I got him into our hammock at one point or the other, but he really wasn’t ready for that still. He likes to hold onto my hair tightly. When he is a little stronger, it will hurt. He ate a bit here and there, but not enough for my liking; the same with the milk. Lone gave him some untuk untuk (savoury vegetable snacks) but he threw it down defiantly, like, “What do you mean by giving me this rubbish!” Rambutans did not figure today; the fruit of choice today was jeruk (tangerine). We had a few really great tickles and, like Beethoven, he laughs out loud. He likes to hold my arm with all his hands and feet-it is just the right diameter. When we came back in the afternoon to the play area by the info house, there were new faces (both human and orangutan), and he got very stressed, so I took him away. I offered him his original favourite shady tree, but instead he went on walkabout. He seemed to be heading straight for his cage, and got as far as the water tower. There he sat, puzzled, looking at all the quarantine cages, as if trying to remember which one was his. Instead of taking him to his cage, I thought I’d ask Lone where it was best he slept now that he is out of quarantine. She wasn’t in the office so we decided to play nearby as we waited. I took him to one or two trees, but he didn’t want to grasp them. So I sat on the porch and put him down and he went directly to a tree with lots of branches sticking out right from the bottom up. These offered a good foothold and lots of places to stop for a rest for an unfit little orangutan. When he got to the top of this tree, he transferred over to a bigger one, and just kept going! He was eating up there for almost an hour when Lone came by, pleased to see him so high. In an instant the black clouds rolled in, faster than you could believe and the wind kicked up furiously and it grew extremely dark. Bahawan wisely started to make his way down, but got stuck about halfway. He was trying to transfer back to the smaller tree, but the branches he was using were too thin. On this particular species of tree, these snap very easily. I was terrified he’d fall, but he was very cautious and eventually made it down safely into my arms (not without a chorus of squeaks). Lone and I decided we would try to let Bahawan stay the night in the info house in a keranjang (basket) separate from the others. So this we did. I put him in his keranjang piled high with leaves and rice sacks and sat with him to help him adjust. But he was extremely wary. In a moment of bravado, he decided to check out the place, explore the electric wires (“NO!”) and the bathroom (“NO!”) and the door out (“NO!”). The girls said, “but what if he walks around all night?” but I don’t think he will. When I left, we put him back in the keranjang with some fruit and he seemed happy enough. I do hope I get a good report in the morning. Tomorrow we will take him out with just one or two little orangutans to see how we get on. I also have to get him to know and trust more babysitters, not just me. Dewey was a hoot today; he kept getting off with my toes. The orangutans loved my boots and dragged them around everywhere and swung them from the trees. Dewey would take my boot off my foot and then direct my foot back into it. One time, however, he had it facing the wrong way round, and was quite bemused to find that my foot would no longer go in. Later in the day, when I went to go pick up my boots, one of them had been filled with a selection of fruit skins. Dewey kept pulling up my shirt and down my trousers to inspect my belly-button. He was equally fascinated by my hair clips (having gone out with two today, somehow I returned with only one). Like so many orangutans, Dewey could spend ages gazing straight into my eyes, as if looking for something. We humans see it as a bonding moment between the species; I think they see their reflection. About two minutes before we decided to pack up, Dewey took the opportunity to urinate in the hammock and all over me. 7th January 2005 Today is my last full day with Pahawan (I find out only now it was a P, not a B all along!) he did NOT sleep well in the info house; he DID spend all night walking round. He was stressed by the presence of the other orangutans, and looking back his behaviour indicates that perhaps he has never been indoors before. He was apparently climbing everywhere and tried to play with the electricity, so for his own safety and comfort, he was returned to his cage shortly after midnight. The babysitters took Pahawan with Group B again in the morning, but this time he was more stressed and scared, and so he sat with his head in his chest. I set out to rescue him when I heard the news. He was hunched over under a hammock when I got there, avoiding all contact. When I called his name, he came straight to me, squeaking, and let me pick him up. As I carried him, he actually held onto me with all four hands and feet for the first time, and his head close against my chest. He holds onto my ponytail with one of his hands. We went to the part of the forest he likes, by the U shaped tree, but it was infested with insects, so we ventured into the thicker area. Oh! He was in heaven, lying on his back again in the thick of it, plucking the succulent stalks I had introduced to him a few days before—and here they were big and plentiful. I put up my hammock and watched him. He was so settled, I decided to read, checking him after each page. Some 20 pages (and checks) in, and on the next one he was gone again! Another half hour searching, wondering if I just stayed put, would he come back--but what if he didn’t? I put on another slathering of insect repellent and really went in, scouring every inch of ground. I finally discovered him under the roots of a huge tree by the river. I put him back in the forest near me, determined that as soon as he moved out of sight again, I’d have to take him to a clearer spot, just to stay safe. He was doing fine. After each page, I had to get out of my hammock and turn my head almost upside down by my feet to peer through the foliage to spot him. I’d call out his name and he’d move his head or hand so that I could tell he was still there. This was all over perhaps 2 metres away…that’s how dense it was. David came with some string beans which we discovered Pahawan adores. Unlike most orangutans who only pluck out the beans, Pahawan inhaled the whole thing. He ate his castoria with gusto. (A castoria is a miniature mango, packed with sweetness, a bit like Pahawan). And this is where my notes end. The following morning, I said goodbye to Pahawan and the staff. I vowed not to wimp out and cry, but I did. Since then, the news is that although Pahawan had a bout of malaria, he now plays in the forest happily and is no longer afraid of the other orangutans. He has come to trust his babysitters as well. The four orangutans on IV are all well again. Indeed, all 300+ at the project are thriving. Sadly, there have been some horrific incidents involving wild orangutans viciously attacked in the oil palm plantations. Lone will write about these shortly. BOS UK sent out Helen Buckland and Anne Miehs from the Sustainable Palm Oil Committee last month to work on our initiative to address the issues surrounding oil palm conversion. Great progress was made and I hope to report to you soon some of these details, as it is an area which needs immediate attention and action. As the number of orangutans reaching our centre and needing translocation continues to mount, BOS UK recognizes the desperate need for further surveying to be completed to locate suitable release sites. We have pledged to support these efforts. I hope you will continue to support the efforts of BOS on the part of the orangutan and the forest in which it lives. With continued gratitude for your generosity, Michelle Desilets ===== Michelle Desilets BOS UK www.savetheorangutan.org.uk www.savetheorangutan.info " Primates Helping Primates " Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand: http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733 _________ ALL-NEW Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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