A few months ago, a female orangutan was reported missing from Kaja Island, the pre-release island where she lived on.
Our technicians as well as the local people who live around Kaja Island knows that the island is inhabited by wildlife such as phytons, monitor lizards, and crocodiles, which are the natural predators of orangutans. The considerable size of the island also made it quite difficult to search for her. We were very worried.
What made us even more worried was because at the time, Inung was pregnant and was fast approaching her due date. Additionally, she has another daughter, Indah, who was still often seen tagging along with her. Indah is her first child born on Kaja Island on June 2, 2007. Although Indah is becoming more independent and can even build her own nest, she is still reluctant to be too far away from her mother.
Inung was conviscated by Central Kalimantan Conservation and Natural Resources Authority (BKSDA) from a resident of Kapuas Regency and arrived at the orangutan rehabilitation center in Nyaru Menteng when she was 3 years old on April 3, 2000. She was in a healthy condition weighing 13 kg and had long thick hair. After she passed the quarantine period, Inung joined her peers at Forest School.
After graduating from Forest School, Inung and several other teen orangutans were moved to Kaja Island, one of the pre-release islands and the last rehabilitation phase for orangutans in Nyaru Menteng. After 10 years living in Kaja, Inung now knows Kaja Island inside out, and she has grown to be an active and friendly orangutan who loves to explore the island.
Beautiful Kaja Island. (Photo: Arvid Nicolas Yosua)
The first time Inung was spotted with her two children. (Photo: Monterado Fridman)
Ina, Kaja Island’s Newest Resident
For more than two weeks, our technicians searched the entire island for Inung, until one morning on July 13, 2012, Inung and Indah were finally spotted. It was such a relief, but Inung had an even more delightful surprise for us! In her loving arms was a tiny baby who was hugging her equally tightly. Apparently she delivered her second child while being ‘missing in action’ and seemed to have hidden deliberately during the delivery process.
The baby was a female with thick and bright-coloured hair, and we decided to call her Ina. Ina, who was estimated to be born one day before Inung’s reappearance, is the 1201st orangutan born under the care of Nyaru Menteng, since the first orangutan rescue activity by the BOS Foundation at Nyaru Menteng back in 2003. Congratulations, Inung!
The BOS Foundation, together with the KLHK and the BKSDA of Central Kalimantan will soon conduct the 44th orangutan release from the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Centre to the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR).
Every year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day to honour the planet that is home to us all.
It was a usual day at the Nyaru Menteng forest school, where young orangutans were learning from one another while their human surrogate mothers looked on from below.
