LEMBU RIVER PHENOLOGY AND AN ENCOUNTER WITH JUMINTEN

Our schedule to collect phenology data in the Lembu River area was hampered by bad weather and repeatedly flooded rivers. The survey that was supposed to be conducted on 24th-25th of each month had to be postponed by a week. And by the time we gained access into the area, still we experienced heavy downpours, so initially were only able to set up a temporary camp. We had to once again delay the phenology survey and wait for the rain to end.

The rain finally stopped and on May 4th we were at last able to leave the camp and conduct the phenology survey.

Some trees were bearing fruits, and these attracted bees, such as Aporosa benthamiana, Garcinia sp., Gardenia sp., Baccaurea tetrandra, Polyalthia sumatrana, and many more whilst others were in flower, soon to bear fruit. Data collection that day went well with the additional bonus of encountering a forest deer.

On the May 5th, before sunrise at 5.20 AM, we were delighted to find that there was an orangutan nearby. We vaguely saw that this individual was just waking up and was about to start the day. But we had to wait for the light to improve to visually identify the orangutan.

The sun rose and finally we could see that the individual was Juminten, a female adult we released back in 2013. Some of the team observed her for a couple of hours, while the rest prepared breakfast.

After two hours we finished observations and concluded that Juminten was in good condition, healthy and active. She seemed to move actively through trees and eat well, especially forest kedondong, which is a type of fruit that Indonesians frequently use as an ingredient for rujak, a local form of fruit salad. We were delighted to see her because Juminten is one the most rarely encountered individuals. She is doing very well and has now lived in the forest for more than a year, so is a successfully reintroduced orangutan.

After that brief time with Juminten, we continued the phenology data collection. Dark clouds covered the sky the entire day, but thankfully the rain held off a moment before sun down. During the survey we also encountered wild hogs, deers, horn bills and several bird species. We were glad that when the rain started to fall, we had already finished our task and headed back to Camp Lesik.