Update 4 from Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project, Borneo

[Guest guest]

Dear Friend of the Orangutan,

 

This is my final update, so for those of you who have

suffered from overstuffed inboxes, you can perhaps

breathe a sign of relief.

 

On to the orangutans:

Pangi has made a small improvement. He is more alert

now, but Lone and Karmele fear he is not out of the

woods yet. He still has 24 hour care, with Lone waking

up every hour or so through the night to check him and

feed him as needed.

 

Zasu, Waru and Pahawan are back to good health and

playing in the forest. Kakak is improving as well but

remains in quarantine for the moment. Little Bintang

has had fever since she arrived; she has her good days

and her bad days, but she is never perfectly well.

Ipon has tested positive for TB which prevents him, of

course, from joining baby school.

 

 

Yesterday, we moved 3 wild orangutans to Nyaru Menteng

Baru. They all woke up before transferring from the

transport cage to their new larger cage, which meant 6

men had to hold the transport cage up to the main cage

door, whilst a 7th stood on top and lifted the hatch.

And this in a driving rain. It went quite smoothly

till they got to the third one. When the hatch was

lifted, instead of going into her new plush cage, she

pulled all the browse into her transport cage and made

herself comfortable. No amount of coaxing was going

to get her to move, as the men strained under the

weight. Eventually, Hendro the technician, thought to

squirt water on her from the back of the transport

cage. But the holes in the cage were a bit smaller

than the hose and the water sprayed back full force in

the Hendro’s face. But some did get through and it was

enough to get her to move resignedly into the new

enclosure.

 

Today another 3 wild orangutans are being transferred

as well.

 

Of the orangutans at baby school, I have gotten to

know a few individuals a bit more. Tobagus is a real

softy, always sitting quietly by my side or resting

his chin on my thigh. Vanilla falls into the same

category. The two of them exude peace. Tara, on the

other hand, is extremely difficult to bear, as she is

a right tear-away. Never have I known an orangutan to

pull hair quite so hard. If she gets a hold of it, she

can pull me right over and refuses to relinquish her

grasp. All the while, she laughs maniacally. I avoid

her at all costs. Saka has completely stolen my heart.

Probably the biggest of the orangutans in the group,

he is also the most gentle. Micky has softened up a

bit, he bites less and doesn’t pursue me at every

opportunity. He will sit quietly without causing

injury so long as I blow on his face. Sponge Bob, or

Bob for short, considers me his special friend, by

virtue, I think, of the massive tickles I give him. A

bit under the weather lately, he likes his quiet time

with me. He takes me by the hand and leads me to one

of the swings where we just sit and I stroke his back.

Lykke, star of Animal Planet’s “Growing Up Orangutan”

likes her role as the smallest baby in baby school.

Lone tells me that every time she gets to about 4 kg,

she just stops growing, drops a little, and then just

hovers around 3.9-4.1 kg, as if she refuses to grow

up. She is in perfect health, so we are not worried.

Sakia, the other star of the programme, has never

taken to me. Last year I babysat her for a week or so

when Lone was in Jakarta, and Sakia still needed 24

hour care. She has never forgiven me for the time she

woke up on from her sleep and found me wearing my

reading glasses. Lone says when she puts on her

reading glasses, Sakia still gets mad at her. Some of

you may remember the little, delicate girl that came

in last year called Asapa. She was dehydrated and

suffering from malnutrition. She is, like so many of

the others, healthy and happy and very loved by all

the baby-sitters.

 

Osito, the baby sunbear, still enjoys his scampers

around the grounds, as well as long naps in the trees.

To give him the protein he needs, we boiled some eggs.

He was asleep, curled up inside a tyre, when I

approached with his first egg. I peeled it and placed

it on the tyre, and then roused him. He groggily got

up and nosed his way around the tyre until he came

across the egg, which made him jump back with a snort.

Quite unsure about this shiny white thing, he gingerly

prodded it with his paw, and jumped back again in

apprehension. I picked up the egg and offered it to

him. He took the whole thing in his mouth, where it

slid around, but did not break. At least not until it

dropped on the ground. When it split open and

revealed the golden yolk, it was as if Osito had

unlocked a treasure chest. He grunted with

contentment as his long tongue cleaned the egg white

of every speck of yolk, and then he moved onto the

white itself. He found this difficult, as the

slippery, rubbery white kept finding its way out of

the corners of his mouth, but he managed in the end.

Out of curiosity, I offered him a bit of shell, which

he also enjoyed. When I gave him another egg in the

afternoon, I gave it to him with the shell intact. He

picked it up in his paws and placed the entire egg in

his mouth, but whenever he clamped down on it, it

remained unscathed in the hollow of his mouth—it was

just narrower than the width of his jaw, and he wasn’t

able to open his jaw wide enough to put it between his

teeth. Eventually, he made a small incision with a

claw, which allowed him to peel the whole thing and

eat it. Now whenever Osito sees me coming with an egg,

he eagerly paces up and down his enclosure, with his

little grunts of anticipation.

 

Did I mention the cats? Jolan, a BOS employee, had

rescued 3 kittens, but it seems she neglected to have

them fixed when they were ready and before she

returned to Holland. As a result, she now has 12

cats/kittens, including 2 born yesterday. 8 of them

live in my house and the remaining 4 live in

Karmele’s. Four of the kittens are old enough to climb

on my bed, and they now serve as my alarm at 5:30 when

the sun comes up, and they lead mountaineering

expeditions up and down the length of my body, as I

sleep on my side. And every night, their mum brings

them (or me?) a little present, alternating between

rats and bats.

 

 

 

It is now my last day at Nyaru Menteng, before I

return home.

Yesterday, late afternoon, a call was received about a

small wild orangutan in a village and a rescue team

was immediately dispatched. They returned a few hours

later with the baby, who is probably no more than 2

weeks old. She had been captured just 2 days before,

and the people told us that her mother had dropped her

and ran off into the forest. We know that this is

impossible, and the more likely scenario is that the

people ate the mother.

We named the little girl Mawas, which means orangutan

in a local dialect in Sumatra. She is completely

helpless and will need to be carried around at all

times, and sleep against a human body. Babies this

young don’t cry for milk, but every hour or so they

will start to search out a nipple with their mouths,

often hooking onto a nose or earlobe until a bottle

teat is provided. Karmele slept with her last night,

waking up to feed her every hour. In the days, one of

the pregnant baby-sitters will look after Mawas while

Karmele proceeds with her work (Lone has some business

in Jakarta, preventing her from looking after Mawas).

Luckily, Mawas bears no injuries or wounds, and is

unlikely to have contracted any illnesses in the short

time she was kept, but still, at about 1.5 kg, she is

very fragile.

I cried myself to sleep last night, thinking about the

tragedy that has presented itself to this young,

innocent life, and remembering why we fight on and do

the work we do.

 

______________________Postscri\

pt:

In the past few days, three more babies, all less than

5 months old, have been rescued by our team. It seems

there is no end. We still have such a lot of work to

do.

 

Thank you to everyone who has helped by writing

letters to retailers and MP’s regarding sustainable

palm oil. This has resulted in ASDA being the first

major UK supermarket (as well as Co-Op) to join up to

the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. This

represents a very strong first step and will hopefully

set a precedent for the others to follow.

 

Additionally, we are pleased that the Observer on

Sunday felt that the orangutan/palm oil campaign was

the environmental story of the year, along with global

warming. This demonstrates the strong interest of the

media and the public in this important issue.

 

BBC2 will be airing a programme called Apes in Danger:

Orangutans on 11th January, which looks at the plight

of the orangutans in light of the growing demand for

palm oil. I have seen the film and it is very

courageous, telling the story as it needs to be told.

 

Two other major BBC projects are in the works with us;

I will give more details in the future.

 

Many thanks to all who have sent Christmas donations.

I intend to earmark a large amount for rescue work in

the new year.

 

Happy holidays to all the friends of the orangutan.

Michelle

 

 

 

NB. If you are missing and would like any of the

first 3 updates, please contact me.

 

 

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

 

 

 

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