ARE ORANGUTANS EMPATHETIC?
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.
As you are aware our adventurous female orangutan Abbie, was originally scheduled to travel to Kehje Sewen Forest by helicopter together with Hamzah and Berlian on the 5th of May 2012, as part of our second orangutan group for reintroduction in East Kalimantan.
Two days prior to their departure, the veterinary team assisted by our technicians planned to retrieve the orangutans from Forest School Level 3, and place them in a transitory enclosure so they could rest before traveling to the Kehje Sewen Forest.
Despite all our efforts, unfortunately Abbie ‘refused’ to be retrieved as was clearly enjoying her freedom and evaded all efforts by climbing and traveling high in the trees at Samboja Lestari. Following much considered discussion the team decided not to delay Berlian and Hamzah’s trip to the forest, whilst the vet team continued with their plans to retrieve Abbie. It is of the utmost importance that Abbie did not become overly stressed during this process as we must ensure that all of our orangutans arrive in the best of health, both physically and mentally.
After several days, Abbie was successfully retrieved from Forest School 3 yesterday afternoon at 12.00 pm. The team checked Abbie’s condition and readiness to travel the long distance overland from Samboja to Kehje to Sewen Forest and pronounced her as ready to go. We decided to take Abbie by road because we can not wait for a month until the we got another helicopter support. This is a tough decision as we don’t want to make Abbie stressed out during the trip. That’s why, during the trip Abbie’s condition will be checked regularly. Our Head Veterinarian drh. Agus Irwanto has a strict plan in place to continually check and monitor Abbie’s condition throughout the journey. Orangutan welfare is still our priority.
If all goes well, Abbie and the release team that led by the Manager of Samboja Lestari - Orangutan Reintroduction Program , Aschta Boestani Tadjudin, will arrive at the Kehje Sewen Forest tomorrow then will be transported to Mount Belah and be introduced to an acclimatization cage for 1-2 days to allow her to rest and become familiar with her immediate surroundings before releasing her.
Goodbye Abbie, soon you will be able to play freely in even higher trees in pristine rain forest.
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.
Our Post-Release Monitoring (PRM) team at Camp Himba Pambelum in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR), Central Kalimantan, encountered Suci, a young female orangutan, three times back in 2023.
Kopral has been receiving treatment at the clinic since April 2023 due to wounds on the sole of his right foot and fungus between his toes.
