SPECIAL WEEK IN KEHJE SEWEN

For the past two months, the activities in Kehje Sewen have been slower than usual due to Ramadhan and Idul Fitri holidays. However things have started to look up since the first week of September with some interesting events, the main one being the renaming of the Camp.

New Name, New Spirit

The Camp was previously known as Camp 103 as it is located 103 kilometers from Muara Wahau. On September 4th, it was renamed as Camp Lesik, after the Lesik River on whose banks the Camp is located. Hopefully the purity and serenity of the Lesik River will flow into our camp and lend it success, continuity and comfort for all its inhabitants.
 
The Camp was officially renamed in a simple ceremony where in Dr. Aldrianto Priadjati, the RHOI Deputy Conservation Director installed a  Camp Lesik banner at the entrance gate of the camp. The humble ceremony was attended by the team members of Camp Lesik, PRM Coordinator Syahik Nurbani, the BOS Foundation Communications Advisor Meirini Sucahyo and Shiro Chikamatsu, a consultant from Ecological Economic Solutions. Mr. Shiro Chikamatsu represented MRI (the Mitsubishi Research Institute) who was visiting the region at the time in order to liaise a cooperation between RHOI and NEC for inventory of resource in Kehje Sewen Forest.

On the occasion, Mr. Aldrin also delivered a presentation on the latest transects map which included several transects which have been renamed, including the Tengah River transect now renamed as the Tyo River and the Sungkai transect which is now the Rini transect. Mr. Aldrin also handed the Best Technician Award for June 2014 to Wibowo, also called as Pak Bowo Bos.
 

Two Mates, Agus and Hamzah

The month of September has been even more exciting thanks to a meeting with Hamzah, one of the first orangutans to have been released in Kehje Sewen Forest. Hamzah had been last observed in March and after all these months Hamzah was found on September 5th, around 200 m away from habituation enclosure, when he was playing with Agus, another male orangutan. Since we only received Agus’s signals but not Hamzah’s (probably because his telemetry chip might have become as it is now more than two years old) we initially assumed he was a female orangutan because they displayed friendly gestures towards each other, such as hugging. The next day however we were able to identify the mysterious orangutan as Hamzah after checking his genitals and matching his profile to his previous photos. That day, Hamzah had been found again playing with Agus. However in the September 6th, at 14.30, Agus left Hamzah upon meeting Lesan.

According to Dr. Sri Suci Utami, the Indonesian orangutan expert who is also an advisor for the BOS Foundation, the friendliness between Agus and Hamzah is a normal behavior for two juvenile orangutans. The two orangutans seem to be healthy and active. Agus and Hamzah ate many forest fruits especially rambutan which is in season in Gunung Belah. They also seemed increasingly wild and displeased upon having been approached by humans. Every time they saw us, they broke branches and threw them at us while kiss-squeaking. We eventually gave them their desired space and observed them from a hill behind their location, around the Wani transect.

After separating himself from Hamzah, Agus spent the rest of his day with Lesan. At night time they even built their nests in neighboring trees, and their nests were only 20 m apart from each other. The Team went back to the camp when Agus and Lesan had settled and seemed to content inside their respective nests. The next day, on September 7th, Agus and Lesan were still playing and eating together in the trees, Agus even showed his intention for copulation which received cold shoulder from Lesan, who seemed to be more interested in playing with an old sack which she found nearby in the habituation enclosure. At 15.30, heavy rain started which had Agus and Lesan moving around rapidly and we were unable to follow them after that.

Friendship of Berlian and Sarmi

By the end of the week on September 7th, we met Berlian in the Suci transect at around 9.30. However, she was not alone, there was another orangutan who could not be identified due to the lack of a signal. Initially we assumed it was Nila because of the similarities in their profiles. However, we noticed that this orangutan didn’t have a bump on the cheek as Nila. Despite the mystery of the identity of the second Orangutan, we kept on observing them as they stayed together during the observation period and ate plentiful of rambutan, young liana leaves, rattan shoots etc. The unidentified orangutan showed slight aggression when we went a little too close to Berlian and seemed to be quite protective of her. After two hours of observation, we left them alone so they could enjoy the rest of the day in peace. When we arrived at the camp, we managed to identify the second orangutan as Sarmi after going through the profiles of all the female orangutans profile who have been released in the Kehje Sewen Forest.

Apart from the orangutans, our team have also recorded many encounters with other wildlife in Kehje Sewen Forest during the week, including deer, quite a variety of birds including hornbill, squirrels and hedgehogs.

Thus, the week has been busy but full of pleasant surprises. Here is hoping for more Orangutan encounters the next week!