BUCUK GOES TO SCHOOL IN NYARU MENTENG

The young orangutan used to live in a small wooden cage at the back of a villager’s house. He seemed nervous and started to make noises as people gathered around his cage. He finally calmed down after being released from the cage.

Bucuk, that’s how he’s called, was relatively tame when Bagong, a Nyaru Menteng staff brought him out of the cage to be checked by the medical team. After an initial check by Vet Merryl Yemima from Nyaru Menteng, we found that Bucuk is 4.5-4 years of age. He has brownish long red hair, and despite being too small for his age, Bucuk is an active and healthy orangutan.

Before he was confiscated by a joint team of Nyaru Menteng and Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Authority (BKSDA) on April 30, Bucuk had been kept for two years by Darma Kusuma and his family in Petak Bahandang village, Katingan Regency.
Hamiyati, Darma’s wife, said that her brother found Bucuk while boar hunting in a forest nearby the village and handed him to her to be taken care of. Found without his mother, Bucuk was caught and mauled by the hound dogs. When Hamiyati received Bucuk, the baby orangutan was such a pathetic sight, shaking in fear and his body was covered with dog bite wounds. Hamiyati then tended the wounds and decided to keep Bucuk.

Darma admitted that he wasn’t aware that orangutan is protected by law and that it is illegal to keep them. It was Supriyadi, their new neighbour who was a Nyaru Menteng staff who gave him the information and advise to make contact with Nyaru Menteng.

Darma was not the only one; many other villagers didn’t know that keeping orangutans is against the law. Hence during the confiscation process, Nyaru Menteng and BKSDA team also provided a counseling session on Wildlife and Protected Species Act and the potential of disease transmission from orangutan. The explanation delivered by Nandang Heriawan of BKSDA and Monterado Fridman of Nyaru Menteng was intended to socialise the information on protected and endangered animals to the villagers.

As he arrived in Nyaru Menteng, Bucuk was placed at a care unit and subjected to a comprehensive health check. He is now going through the quarantine process and soon, he will be able to live a totally different life from his past when he was kept by humans. Bucuk will be taken care of and trained by the devoted and loving babysitters, and together with his peers he will learn how to live as a wild orangutan at Nyaru Menteng Forest School. Happy learning in Nyaru Menteng, Bucuk!