Niniek was rescued in the village of Kuala Kurun of the Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan, in November 2019. She was only about two months old at the time and weighed just two kilograms. Niniek was allegedly found by a local villager, alone and stranded near a sand-mining area. She was then handed over to a joint team from the BOS Foundation’s Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Central Kalimantan BKSDA.
During her 3-month quarantine period at Nyaru Menteng, alongside Monyo and Hanua, Niniek displayed more independent behaviour than her peers, as she did not rely as much on the surrogate mothers. She enjoyed playing alone and showed little fear; in contrast to most baby orangutans who arrive at our centres in a traumatised state.
After completing quarantine Niniek joined the Nursery’s Small Group, for the youngest orangutans at the rehabilitation centre. This group has its own Forest School location, separate to the areas that older groups occupy. This is where Niniek began learning the basics of forest survival, and worked on skills like tree climbing and brachiating. On her first day of Forest School, Niniek appeared to be a bit unsure about her new environment.
Over time, Niniek has become a more confident and playful baby orangutan. She now possesses good climbing skills and enjoys playing with other orangutans in tall trees. She is friendly with other orangutans and has been spending time with Jeni, Alexander, and Monyo. She also likes to hang around Monita and Christina, two of the older orangutans in the Nursery.
Milk is Niniek's favourite food, as well as bananas and oranges. She recently discovered a new favourite food: jelutong sap, which was introduced to her by a surrogate mother. Jelutong (Dyera costulata) is a tropical tree that can be tapped for latex; which is used in the production of rubber, paint and varnish, glue, and chewing gum. Local people use jelutong sap as an adhesive in boat making and hand crafting.
Based on Niniek's progress thus far, we believe she will sail through every stage of Forest School and hone all the survival skills required to qualify her for release in the wild someday.
Keep on learning throughout the rehabilitation process, Niniek, until you are ready to return to the forest!
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.
