Today, we are returning to the wild orangutan research station deep within the Mawas Conservation Area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia: the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station! In a collaboration with Universitas Nasional (UNAS), the University of Zurich, Rutgers University, and the Bornean Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation, research on wild Bornean orangutans and peat swamp ecology has been ongoing there since 2013.
Last week, we shared an update on the November workshop on orangutan nutrition and health research (read more about it here, if you haven’t already!). However, there is more to the story! With a population of over 2,500 wild orangutans in the area, there is no shortage of research questions to be explored!
The nutritional research is only a part of the work being conducted by the UNAS and Rutgers team. They also study the health of the orangutans at Tuanan by collecting and analyzing their urine. Every morning before sunrise, with the aid of a plastic bag attached to a stick, the Tuanan team collects urine as it rains down from the nests of awakening orangutans above. When the researchers return to the lab at the end of the day, they prep the urine for future analyses and can even start to learn about orangutan health on the spot.
Dr. Vogel demonstrating how to process urine samples for research on orangutan health
Dr. Vogel demonstrates how to pipette urine
BOS Foundation Nyaru Menteng member, Novera, pipetting urine to be sent to the lab
Mindy and Marley
With a steady hand and hyper-focus not to spill the precious golden liquid, Dr. Vogel demonstrated how to prepare urine samples and take some preliminary health data. It only takes a few drops of urine placed carefully on the coated slivers of plastic called Chemstrips®, for reactions to occur that cause a color change. These color changes can be read and interpreted with the use of a color key to find evidence of weight loss, infection, or other signs of ill-health. The urine samples that were prepared during the workshop will later be more thoroughly analyzed to examine variation in biomarkers of stress, protein loss, and much more. By training this generation of UNAS students, the Tuanan team hopes to keep monitoring the health of these apes well into the future.
The workshop was undoubtedly a success, but the cherry on top of this productive trip was the chance to catch a glimpse of the newest addition to the Tuanan population—Marli. This curious little 4-month-old orangutan was proof that however they are doing it, the orangutans at Tuanan are staying well-fed and healthy. With continued research, Team Tuanan hopes to find out how. More news from Tuanan (and Marli) soon to come!
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.
