Orangutan Foundation

Category: Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve | Date: Aug 28 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

One of the rules of blogging on Wildlife Direct is that you can not swear. I know that is only reasonable but it does rob me of my ability to completely describe yesterday.

It was a nightmare.

Trying to get to Sukamara, on the Western side of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, and back in a day is always a challenge. We were going there to choose the location of our next guard post but the backlog of admin, that I am currently struggling with, prevented me from giving the trip more time. There is no one better than Jak at picking these sites but, because we have to justify the choice to our donors, it is too much responsibility to leave him to “carry the can” alone. My head has to rest on that block.

We woke at 6am ready to depart at 7 only to be asked to delay until 9 as a member of our speedboat driver’s family had suffered an epileptic fit and had to be hospitalised. Quite reasonably, in the culture in which we work, family illnesses take precedence over anything. Hence we were two hours late leaving.

Tides change in hours.

We arrived at the fishing town of Sungai Pesir just before noon and drove straight to the Reserve, stopping only to drag a stranded vehicle out of one of the crater-sized holes in the road. We branched off the main track, into the Reserve, checked out the first potential guard post site. We then drove on as far as we could and walked to the second site, leaving the car to turn around.

The second site was great but it was fairly deep inside the reserve – more important to protect the borders – and access would be a problem (how true these words would prove to be).

The heavens opened as we walked back to the car and we were drenched by the time we got to it. There had been no need for us to hurry; the vehicle was going nowhere. It was bogged down to its axles.

Applying physics and the scientific method to the problem, I worked out what we needed to do. Applying common sense and practicality to the problem, the team set about fixing it! They did the better job, but it still took three hours to get the car unstuck.

In turn we jacked up each wheel, braced it, moved on to the next, jacked that up, braced it, and so on until we were back to the first wheel which we then jacked up a bit more, braced, and moved onto the next wheel. And so on….

Three hours later the car drove off six feet and then stuck again.

We pushed it free and it got stuck again. Soon however it was on firm ground and we could go. We went back to the first site, which, not surprisingly (!), received our unanimous seal of approval, and we continued onto our Sukamara office. There we talked through the local situation with the Mobile Education Unit, who is currently touring schools and villages in the area, before Jak and I headed for home.

I’ll leave out a description of the sound of spinning wheels and spraying mud as we drove back to Sungai Pesir. Suffice it to say, I would describe the two people we picked up, to save them the walk, as traumatised rather than grateful, but that’s beside the point.

We got back into the speedboat just before 8pm. The tide was running out so the driver went fast and in doing so missed a bend in the channel, sending us skipping over the mudflats until somehow he managed to career us back towards deeper water. Seeing what was about to happen I braced myself but still managed to mash my big toe on impact.

To properly understand our situation you really have to have been there, or have knowledge about the geography of southern Borneo. There are beaches which are dry; in front of them are mud flats which stretch for 100’s of meters deepening imperceptibly until suddenly you are in the sea.

There was no moon last night; we could not even see the coast. It was too cloudy to see the stars. Navigating by compass we tried to head south into the ocean, the propeller screaming against the mud and sand while the waves from the sea constantly upset our course. Eventually we were clear and turned east. In rain and a kicking swell we aimed for the mouth of the Lamandau River, which would take us back to Pangkalan Bun. The rain came down, the waves threw us up. Though it was cold and uncomfortable it wasn’t dangerous per se but, if danger is defined as the limiting of one’s options, we were never far away from being in a crisis.

At the risk of sounding a wimp I got to the stage of just wanting the whole trip over. The light of the beacon we were aiming for never seemed to draw nearer. I lost the ability to think about each wave which threatened to flip us over, what would happen if we grounded a hundred muddy meters from the shore, if the light we were following was in fact a fishing boat, miles out?

And it still wasn’t over.

Once we turned into the river (fortunately when the rain eased off) we found ourselves confronted by a wall of mist. Either the warm air was condensing on contact with the cold river or vice-versa’ I neither know nor care. All I know is we alternated between periods of break-neck speed when the driver was confident to sudden swerves and chugging along as we tried to find the river bank again.

I post this blog unashamedly with just three poor photos. If you had been with us in that boat you would have heard a rich stream of expletives which would have been much more colourful!

Tags: , Borneo, Protected Area

4 responses so far

Category: Orangutans | Date: Aug 27 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

Paula’s question of how do we identify individual orangutans is a good one. In many ways, recognition is done as we do with people: it is the whole appearance which guides identity. As with chimpanzees, but unlike gorillas, orangutans have lots of individual differences. One of the features I find most useful is the “forehead bump” all orangutans have but whose shape and size varies. Other unique features are hair colour, hair patterns, body-size, moles and scars.

Adult males (cheek-padders) are easy; they all have different facial patterns and pad shapes. You learn to tell adult females apart by their individual appearance. The group I find the hardest (and at times impossible) to identify are old juveniles – young adolescents; orangutans aged from around 5 - 10 all look very similar. You can not tell the sexes apart; they all still retain a youthful lightness to their skin and, quite frankly, appear identical! Only the Assistants who see them very frequently can tell them apart.

I hope the attached photos show what I am talking about:

Tata: She is a big female; eyes quite close together; dark hair crown.

Princess: She has a line running from her nose to under her right eye, otherwise she has a smooth face with a narrow, pointy forehead-bump. Her coat colour is dark.

Siswi: Obvious!

Tut: Tut is thin to the point of being gangly; she has a distinctive fringe and her face is very lined.

Uning: Obviously still a young adult; Uning retains the lightness around the eyes and mouth which is typical of young orangutans. Her eyes are also quite close together.

Badut: Compared with other adult males, Badut has a narrow face.

Kusasi: His cheek pads are incredibly ragged.

Masran: The join of his cheek-pads is very triangular and he has a notch on his left pad.

Tom: Like Siswi, when Tom is around you know it! However, the join between his cheek pads is distinctive. I describe it as “messy”. Compare it with the photo of Win and you’ll see what I mean.

Win: Has a very obvious crease running across his left cheek-pad.

Juvenile: Beat me! I can’t even tell if the orangutan in the photo is a boy or a girl

Photographs by Anna Lewis, Hugh Sturrock, Melissa Tolley, Ursula Fuller and Stephen Brend.

Tags: Orangutans

4 responses so far

Category: Orangutans, Rehabilitation, Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP) | Date: Aug 21 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

Last week Brigitta asked me to give her regards to Siswi.  Unfortunately, I have not managed to get out of the office (hence this week’s blog, which has been more about individual orangutan histories than actual news from the field!).  However, I thought I would tell all of you about her because, like Kusasi, she is one of Camp Leakey’s characters.  Most visitors to Camp meet her and she’s pretty noticeable.  

Siswi has a distinctive gait, a unique habit of lying on her back holding her feet and, if there is a male around, she’s almost guaranteed to put in a show. 

People may consider her “rotund” but that does not appear to diminish her sex-appeal; she frequently consorts (the name given to the temporary male – female pairings, when a female is in season) with Tom, whereas a few year’s ago, she was definitely Kusasi’s girl.  Indeed, without trying to keep going on about the film “Kusasi: From Orphan to King” there is a delightful scene where Siswi is rolling along in front of Kusasi as he walks through the forest.   

What made Siswi famous from the outset was that she was the first ever offspring of a rehabilitated orangutan at Camp Leakey.  Siswoyo was released by Biruté Galdikas in 1975.  On the 9^th of September 1978 she gave birth to Siswi, evidence that once-captive orangutans can return to the wild.  Because of this, the first release camp in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve is called Camp Siswoyo.   

Attached is Siswoyo’s family tree.  My apologies that the text appears to have jumped inside the boxes; I am no-one’s idea of a graphic designer! You may need to click on the family tree to read it.

Tags: orangutan, Rehabilitation

7 responses so far

Category: Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutans, Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP) | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

I see a number of people have asked how we monitor the orangutans once they have been released into Lamandau. There is nothing technical involved: our field assistants follow the orangutans from sunrise to sunset (or as we say, “nest to nest”) everyday for a week. If after that time it is clear the orangutan has adapted to life in the forest, they will then be followed occasionally like the other previously released orangutans. If after the first week, the assistants are concerned that the orangutan may not be adapting they will continue to follow he or she for a month. Common causes of concern are the orangutans not making their own nests but choosing to sleep on the feeding platform or making a bee-line for Camp and not exploring their new surroundings. Within the first week, we expect to see the orangutans making their own nest, trying wild food and travelling. Nearly all achieve this.

Most newly-released orangutans tend not to go too far in the first couple of days but then they start to travel further and further. Last December I told you about the release of Sawit and her adopted son Andi. They took off within their first week, probably because Sawit was being hassled by a sub-adult male. The Assistants could not follow her through the swamps to the west of Camp Rasak. However, on 22 April, back they came, still together.

Which brings me onto the last element of the post-release monitoring; the daily supplemental feedings. In Tanjung Puting, where orangutans were released from the early 1970s to the mid-90s, the rehabilitants are offered food once a day. In Lamandau food is provided twice a day. This serves three purposes: it keeps up the nutrition levels of the released orangutans; it decreases competition for scare food resources with wild orangutans, gibbons, hornbills, and other wildlife and finally it enables us to monitor the orangutans’ development. All individuals coming to the feeding stations are recorded; over the course of a year, at least half of all released orangutans are seen. The Assistants also note whether they are consorting with the opposite sex, pregnant or with an infant and their general health.

For example, Boni who was released at the same time as Sawit and Andi came into feeding 26 times during April, and then every day in May and June. Lady Di, whose picture I showed you in April, was around for 28 days in April, May and June but Hongky was there for just 9 days in April, 14 days in May and 25 days in June.

In answer to “Rick, El Paso, TEXAS” question about the availability of this data, I am afraid to say it is not available online. We produce quarterly reports, in Indonesian, covering this information but the reports are for the Forestry Department and our own internal use. However, Tigor who manages the Lamandau Camps is providing information about our release program to an Indonesian PhD student at Cambridge University in the UK. So hopefully it will be peer-reviewed and published.

Please keep asking questions and I’ll try to keep answering them! Many thanks.

4 responses so far

Category: Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve, Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine, Orangutan Foundation Staff, Orangutans, Rehabilitation | Date: Aug 14 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

Wow Kusasi certainly proved popular! Thank you for all the positive comments and nice to hear from you again Brigitta. If people want to see the film “Kusasi from Orphan to King” I understand it can be bought on-line from PBS.

The other week I wrote that July was Pondok Ambung, our Tropical Forest Research Station’s, “month”. Certainly, the research activities there dominated my time, but that does not mean everything else stopped. In fact, four more orangutans were released from the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve.

I now have a bit of time to tell you about them. Biruté Galdikas supervised the releases with Tigor, the Manager of the five release camps. On 28 July, the adult female Sasha was released along with her adopted daughter Monica. Though Monica was no longer an infant, it is always good to see these adoptions work; no matter how competent the staff at the Care Centre are, obviously a female orangutan is the best possible mother for youngster.

The second release on 4 August was a bit more traumatic. The orangutans, Ucok and Lori, were OK, but the people had some problems! The orangutans were moved out of the Care Centre in the morning, to avoid them travelling in the heat of the day and were carried in a kelotok (a traditional boat a bit like a motorized canoe). Biruté, Tigor and other staff travelled up later in speedboats. Or at least that was the plan; low water levels meant the speedboats could not get up. They lost two propellers and cracked the hull of one of the boats after colliding with submerged logs. Eventually, the kelotok had to come back for them.

The pictures below show the release from the Care Centre to Camp Rasak and then freedom, once again, in the wild. 

Monica

Monica and Sasha leaving the OCCQ  

These photos show the orangutans being moved from the Care Centre, into the kelotok, then having a few minutes peace on the feeding platform before some other interested orangutans came for a nose.

All the photo’s were taken by Uduk, Tigor’s deputy, on a camera recently donated to the Orangutan Foundation at our Members and Supporter’s Evening in London, in July.

Tags: Borneo, endangered species, orangutan, Rehabilitation

10 responses so far

Category: Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine, Orangutans | Date: Aug 11 2008 | By: orangutanfoundation

I was pleased to read that some of you have seen the PBS documentary “Kusasi from Orphan to King” which was shown on PBS television in the States, on the BBC in the UK and ABC in Australia (I think it may also have been on Animal Planet). I think it is a great film giving you a real insight into Kusasi’s world. 

Kusasi -the old king of Camp Leakey 

However, the second reason I like it is much more personnel; Kusasi has been a large figure throughout my time here.  When I first visited Camp Leakey as a tourist, in 1996, Kusasi was the contender in waiting.  By the time I came back in 2001 he was the undisputed king.  He dominated Camp throughout 2003 but even by then Win was challenging him.  In 2004 twice we had to operate on him up at Camp. 

Kusasi during an operation at Camp Leakey, Tanjung Puting National Park 

I remember eight of us struggling to lift him; his head alone felt as heavy as a sack of cement.  2005 was little better for him; he broke his arm and had to be moved to the Care Centre where he spent the next year.   By the time he was moved back to Camp in 2006, he was very much “in retirement”. 

Kusasi, after his time in the OCCQ, in 2006 

Tom had taken over as king and is still the dominant male, he rarely comes into Camp though.  Kusasi, for his part, is either in Camp or deep into the forest.  He does not go anywhere where Tom might be.  And that is probably very wise. 

Kusasi -relaxing (photo by Hugh Sturrock)

I have seen Kusasi relaxing, even looking bored.  I have seen him grab a person, which was frightening and I have seen him fighting other males, which was even more frightening.  He gave Ashley and I the shock of our lives when he entered a small building where we sat.  But I have also seen him grow old.

Kusasi - still a magnificent orangutan 

These days he appears thin rather than massive as he did a few years ago and he has lost two of his canine teeth.  It is probably in his best interests if his fighting days are over. That said, even if he is past his prime, in his prime he was unbeatable.  And even now he remains magnificent. 

Tags: Borneo, great ape, Orangutans

10 responses so far