HAMZAH AND SAYANG SPOTTED NEAR CAMP LESIK

Our team from Camp Lesik, in the Kehje Sewen Forest, was recently patrolling at Gunung Belah and along the Rini transect with transmitters in the hope of picking up orangutan signals. The team spent the entire day trying to locate released orangutans, but it was to no avail. However, right before they retired to Camp Lesik that evening, Sayang and Hamzah were discovered nearby the camp.

Early the next morning, as our kitchen camp began emitting the hearty smells of breakfast, our spirits were lifted after spotting several movements on the hill in front of the camp. After peeking through our binoculars, we found that the movements were coming from Sayang and Hamzah, who both had nested near Camp Lesik.

Bowo, Handoko and Rizal skipped breakfast to observe the two orangutans. We later realized that Sayang and Hamzah were closer than we initially thought, actively moving through the trees and kiss-squeaking when they saw members of our monitoring team.

We witnessed Sayang knock down a dead tree, around 50 centimetres in diameter: She dangled her body on the branch of a dead tree and used her weight to rock it around. After a few tries, she managed to knock it down. We could only wonder why she may have done this – perhaps she was trying to show her displeasure toward us.

Soon after, Hamzah moved deeper into the Kehje Sewen Forest, leaving Sayang to relax and enjoy her morning meal of forest fruits.

We finished our data collection by mid-morning and continued to patrol along the Ariyo transect up to the release point where we had reintroduced Diah, in December 2013. On the way, we intermittently detected Mona’s signal, which seemed to be heading to Peapong. We tracked the signal, but it wasn’t clear. By the time we had finished our patrol at the Martin transect, we still had not spotted a single orangutan. We figured it was just one of those days.

The sun was setting and it was getting dark, so the team quickly headed back to Camp Lesik. We can only hope for better results on the next patrol.

Our team always feels uplifted whenever we locate, follow and observe one of our released orangutans. It gives us great joy to witness them living happily and enjoying their freedom in the forest. We hope every orangutan that goes through our rehabilitation process, both in Samboja Lestari and Nyaru Menteng, will eventually be able to live again in their natural habitat.