SWEET LITTLE YORDANKA

Stories of abandoned children always touch our hearts and bring tears to our eyes, and the plight of baby Yordanka is no different.

When a female orangutan Yuni fell pregnant, we were all surprised as she was only 8 years old.  Yuni gave birth to baby Yordanka on January 30th 2013. However, unfortunately after delivery Yuni withdrew from her newborn and showed no interest in nursing or nurturing the infant.

She refused to cuddle or feed little Yordanka and ignored her pitiful hunger cries.  After two days of observations and Yuni consistently ignoring her infant, our Head  Vet, Agus Irwanto, was left with no choice but to intervene and take over Yordanka’s care.

As she was so young, Yordanka needed to be cared for around the clock and Agus took turns with 2 other medical staff members in taking care of her. Yordanka stayed with them in the staff dormitory night and day.

At 3 months of age Yordanka was healthy and strong enough to join our other babies in the nursery.  Here Yordanka became acquainted with babies closer to her age namely Pedrosa, Sally, and LeAnn.  All of these baby orangutans are under the constant supervision and care of our technicians and babysitters.

Owing to the trauma of her mother’s rejection Yordanka unsurprisingly shows signs of insecurity and needs a lot of love, attention and encouragement. Yoyo, as she is fondly called, tends to cry loudly when her demands are not met, or when she sees babysitters carrying other baby orangutans around.

She constantly needs full-time attention, especially from her favorite babysitter called Naomi.  Yordanka is extremely attached to Naomi at the moment and refuses to be cared for by other babysitters.

Under normal circumstances a baby orangutan would have the full-time attention of his or her mother and we try to recreate this situation as much as possible to build our babies into happy, healthy and confident young orangutans.  Luckily, asides from needing a lot of special attention, which can only be expected given her situation, Yordanka is a healthy baby orangutan.  Lately she has started to try climbing trees, however for now, she tends to stay close to her favorite babysitter.

We wish Yordanka a happy childhood!
Text by: Samboja Lestari Communications Team