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Hi Sheryl We aren’t sure why it says ‘comments closed’ on Stephen’s last post -I don’t think we have done anything wrong our end! Wildlife Direct are looking into it and hopefully it will be resolved soon. Many thanks, Cathy, Orangutan Foundation
“Why do you do it like that?” “That’s the way it has always been done.” One of the standards in orangutan rehabilitation is released orangutans are fed on a platform.
Photos showing the feeding platforms that have always been used.
Everyone does it; as do we. But then we got to thinking there has to be a better way. Wild orangutans, especially in Borneo, rarely if ever, feed in groups. So why should ex-captives? Without the platform though, how do you feed them? By hand is not an option. So we thought “put a bucket on a tree”. No, the orangutans will destroy a bucket in seconds. OK, use a cooking pot. Imagine the noise they would make banging that around, plus they will rip it off the tree! Alright then, use an inside out car tyre as a bucket. Fine, but how are you going to attach it; we don’t want to bore into the tree? Here’s an idea, when you cut off the side walls to invert the tyre, use the off-cuts as straps to hold the tyre against the tree.
Old tyres- they have many uses, if not for fire beaters then as a feeding bucket So we’re settled: the food goes in the car tyre strapped to the tree. But how do you give them their milk (which many love more than fruit)? Cups – they’ll break, be lost and will become litter. Water bottles – even worse. Let’s try coconuts. Cut the top off, pour the milk in, put the coconut in the tyre; if the orangutans drop it, it will be easy to find and even if we don’t it is hardly litter. All good then - let’s try it.
Its a good job our assistants are tree climbers too!
The feeding system has been running in Camp Siswoyo for a month now. It is not perfect. More than one orangutan may descend on each tyre. Some still walk on the ground between the feeding trees. We are buying an awful lot of coconuts – the orangutans drink the milk then eat the nut! It is more work on the staff and they have to be quick to get the food out.
But is it better than the platforms? Oh yes. You can ensure a fairer distribution of food. It lessens competition, facilitates giving medication when necessary and it keeps the orangutans feeding in the trees.
The system needs to be tweaked, but as a first attempt at a new idea we are all delighted with the result. And here’s where I have to add a thank you not only to Tigor and his staff for their enthusiasm to give it a go, but also to Jodie and Peter: the endless night’s talking about how we could make individual feedings work were worth it!
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Apologies for the long silence. I went away for a couple of weeks over Easter, timing my return to coincide with the next reporting period (which seem to come around all too often!). We have to report on our activities, for both donors and the Indonesian Government, every three months and March ends the first quarter of the year. The good news for me was, in my absence, the team have just about finished the various reports – gold stars all round. What is more amazing is finding out what happened while I was away. Astri attended a number of meetings designed to harmonize the (Central Government) Forestry Department’s spatial plans with the provincial plan. The end result of these meetings is that the borders of the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve will be adjusted to incorporate a large block of surrounding forest.
This is fantastic news! Not only is more forest protected, it dramatically increases the number of potential release sites and will make patrolling and monitoring much simpler. Well done to all! Devis’ report on Pondok Ambung, Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP) covers not only the fire but also the recent arrival of four Indonesian students; two of whom will be conducting research at Pondok Ambung, while the other two will be observing orangutans around Camp Leakey. They found very fresh scratch marks made by a sun bear.
Sun bear scratch marks Sun bears are the smallest of all the true bears, being approximately the size of a Labrador. They have amazingly long sharp claws which they use to rip through bark to get at insects and honey. It is interesting to note the local Dayaks consider the sun bear the most dangerous animal in the forest, because of their habit of attacking rather than running if startled. Sadly though they are the rarest of bears, endangered through hunting and habitat loss. Teguh wrote about the activities of the Buluh Kecil and Buluh Besar river guard posts, in TPNP, which he supervises. They have clearly been busy at the Buluh Kecil. Buluh Kecil Guard Post During the month, in addition to the routine patrolling, they have started clearing an access trail from the post to the village of Teluk Pulai some 7 km away. They have also mapped the reforestation site at the back of the post (reforestation is the major activity at this post, as the surrounding area was badly burnt in the fires of late 2006). Some 10 hectares have already been replanted, though survival rate is not encouraging. We hope to improve this programme when we plant the next batch of saplings which have been grown onsite. What neither Teguh or Devis mentioned was getting lost. They were intending to walk from the Pesalat Camp to the orangutan release camp, Pondok Tanggui. As Bhayu narrates: “Devis and Teguh had crazy plan to walked from pesalat to pondok tanggui, using existing trail that they never walked previously. I tried to ask them not to but they insisted, rely on the GPS. So they got lost. After we arrived at Pondok tanggui at 16.00, we gathered the search party. We shouted at each other, but no encountered, so we went back to pondok tanggui at 23.00 and devis and teguh had to spent the night at the forest. We pick them up in the morning, exhausted and they felt so stupid i bet.” I can see why that wasn’t mentioned in their reports!
Both photos of Pondok Tanggui Now, thank you and some replies. Thank you Theresa S. for your latest and generous donation of $100 and Hannah for your offer of support - the London office may be in touch. Elizabeth, thank you for your donation made on 3rd March, if you haven’t already done so, please could you confirm with Wildlife Direct that it was for the Orangutan Foundation (!). Brigitta, fantastic that you are going to visit TPNP and thank you for your offer of bringing supplies to Indonesia. Having discussed it with the UK office, their suggestion is to keep it simple and rather posting things from the UK to Switzerland, if you could buy some chewable children’s multi-vitamins that would be perfect. They are always in demand at the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine. Closer to the time, we can make arrangements to meet up. Lastly, on my holiday I took advantage of a fast internet connection to download Google Earth (as well as looking at this site. Do you know, our dial up connection in Indonesia is so slow I can rarely see my own page?!). If you have Google Earth you can type in Tanjung Puting Indonesia and the National Park will come up. Lamandau is not listed but if you are really keen, I will give you some coordinates so you can find it. Again, thank you for your support and apologies for the silence.
I know you are still waiting to hear an orangutan story – for that I apologise. The post is written and will follow this one but I have been caught up in rather more immediate events. I wrote some weeks ago how little rain we have received, well we are now into our third week without a decent shower and have suffered our first fire (see photos below) in Tanjung Puting National Park.
Six and a half hectares went up behind Pondok Ambung Research Station. The fire burned through scrub and secondary forest – it was held at the edge of the primary forest which was a relief but, sadly, this is only a sign of things to come. We are caught up in “La Nina” weather phenomena which is effecting the Pacific bringing rain storms to north eastern Australia and drought to south-eastern Australia and, bizarrely, to us. Here, I have lived through two El Nino events, in 2002 and 2006. On both occasions the extended dry season resulted in wide spread fires and chocking haze. The fires of 2006 catapulted Indonesia into third place on the list of the largest emitters of green house gases. El Ninos are bad. I have to say, I am not impressed by its sister La Nina either. To be so dry at this time of the year is beyond exceptional. And it will impact on the orangutans. Already, the evening sky is filling with smoke. Small blazes are tackled directly, encircled by lots of people who tamp down the spreading edges and are backed up by the hand sprayers. Larger blazes require the making of a cut line across the fire front, which is typically a metre (3’) wide scar of bare soil; in 2006 the cut line in Tanjung Puting was 12 km long (see photo below).
The cut line is then patrolled until the fire arrives and is then prevented from crossing. For small fires, our staff is usually first on the scene. For larger fires, everyone is called in including people from the surrounding villages.
Now I am going to break with tradition and ask directly for support. I have no idea whether this request is allowable under Wildlife Direct rules; all I can do is vouch for its sincerity. We need to equip our staff with fire fighting tools. The principal tool is a “beater”, which consists of a bamboo pole with a cut car tire ‘tongue’ at the end. We need to buy lots of these beaters so that we are ready to tackle the fires. I am asking for a $2 donation from each reader. The beaters costs around $1.50 and the extra money will go towards buying hand sprayers which are used for dousing beaten, but still hot, embers (see photo below).
Thank you for your support and I will keep you updated.
I see the number of comments my posts are attracting has shot up. However, the comments also make me think you are a strange lot. Here I am supposed to be writing about orangutans, I tell a nightmare story about spiders and I get a deluge of replies! If you want more horrible spider stories, stand by because here’s another one. Thank you F. J. PECHIR for telling me the spider, an arachnophobic’s worst nightmare, that I had in my bathroom, was in fact harmless. It is reassuring but I have to question the use of the word “little”? I could joke that I too would handle them with a telephone directory, but I totally accept your point that spiders are part of a healthy ecosystem. I just wish they weren’t part of mine! A couple of years ago, on an orangutan survey, I felt something on my arm. To my horror I discovered it was one of the long legged spiders shown in the photo below (can you identify it F.J. PECHIR?).
Now, in a perverse kind of way, I had always wanted to know what I would do if I had a big spider on me: would I freak out, throw a blue fit and probably get bitten? Or would I freeze? That experiment has now been conducted and I can tell you the instinctive reaction is to freeze. At least until your friendly, local field assistant flicks it off. I would like to be able to tell you I then cracked a joke and carried on just as Indiana Jones would do. That, however, is a club I am not a member of. One of the sayings (gross generalisations?) you hear about spiders in Borneo is “if they climb walls or sit in webs, they are harmless. If they run on the ground or have burrows, they are bad”. Photo number 2 is a bird-eating spider. You guessed it: it lives in a burrow, is incredibly aggressive and is huge. The first one I ever saw was picked up in the car headlights as it crossed a road! I do not know how many birds they catch but they are certainly partial to mice.
The photo of the stag beetle is thrown into as a challenge to any palmetto bugs out there! I also thought you might be interested to see some pictures of Camp Leakey, the original study site of Dr Galdikas. When you are in Camp Leakey you do get a sense of history; some of the orangutans she talks about in her autobiography “Reflections of Eden” are still there today. The release of rehabilitated orangutans at Camp Leakey ceased in 1995 but many of the ex-captive orangutans, or their offspring, still wander in and out of Camp. Observing the ex-captive orangutan’s behaviour provides an insight into orangutan intelligence that couldn’t be gained from wild orangutans. The apparent ease with which they imitate human behaviour (washing laundry, opening locks on doors) confirms just how intelligent this great ape really is!
It’s all about team work! I know I promised I said I’d write more about orangutans soon. Tomorrow I’ll make good on that promise, as this afternoon I have to go to the Orangutan Care Centre Quarantine. There will be a story soon!
Thanks as always for your encouraging comments. I’m just going to respond to a couple questions from my last few posts -sorry to be brief. I haven’t seen Orangutan Island but I can see why its so popular. Orangutans are fascinating to watch - highly intelligent and very charismatic! We aren’t affiliates of Orangutan Island, it is located about 400km east of us and is the only other rehabilitation centre in Kalimantan. Chris, thank you very much for your support of our work, I agree Wildlife Direct is great way to keep people (and our members) informed. Thank you for your questions and I’ll try to answer them. I would like to keep my blog just about my Orangutan Foundation work. Orangutans are much more interesting after all! For those who might not know Dr Biruté Galdikas, here’s a brief introduction. In 1971 Dr. Biruté Galdikas commenced her study of wild orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park, with the encouragement of the late, renowned Dr. Louis Leakey. Dr Galdikas is one of the world’s leading experts on orangutans with her study well in to its third decade now. Dr. Galdikas founded the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) in 1986. The Orangutan Foundation (who I work for), was established a few years later in 1991, as an international chapter of the OFI. The Orangutan Foundation is a separate, independent organisation, working closely in certain areas with OFI for example; the protection of Tanjung Puting National Park and the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine facility. Dr Galdikas is a professor at the Universitas Nasional in Jakarta and at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. When she is back in the field we meet up to discuss shared work plans, whether it be organising orangutan releases or the protection of Tanjung Puting National Park. However, a lot of my work is separate from OFI, such as the Lamandau Stephen
I apologise for the lack of orangutan news recently. I was at my desk for all of last week because every year, during January, we have to write up the previous year’s activities and prepare the work plan for the year ahead. These reports are then submitted to the Government. It is not without its interesting moments, but essentially it’s a bureaucratic exercise that certainly doesn’t involve watching orangutans. And it hasn’t been the easiest time to do all this. The reality of life here is that if it is not a power cut it is a fuel shortage. I am typing (thank you laptop) this by candlelight – we have had no electricity since 5pm and it is now 9 pm. There is virtually no diesel in town, which is why the electricity generating station is only operating part time and kerosene has already run out. Indeed, even in Jakarta families are being rationed to 1 litre per week which is nothing when kerosene is the main cooking fuel. In our camps and guard posts the Assistants are having to cook on wood fires, something we hate having to do. The lack of diesel is providing a challenge for our forest patrols. Only journeys that are essential can be made so we have to prioritise our work carefully in order that we can maintain our high profile monitoring and vigilance. The forests need protection fuel or no fuel. The fuel shortages don’t just affect my work life but my home life too. Recently I was asked about snakes. Snakes, while certainly not my favourite animal, I can cope with. Spiders, however, give me the heebie-jeebies. The other day I went into my bathroom and saw a huge black huntsman above the door. I fled – naturally. Then there was a power cut -great timing. That night, I went back into the bathroom, with a candle, to wash and wouldn’t you know it the spider had disappeared. And that’s what I hate about spiders: they just appear and then disappear. And my bathroom is next door to the bedroom and trying to find a spider with candle in hand isn’t fun. I still haven’t found it!
The spider!! We not only have fuel shortages but we are also experiencing high seas and so very few supplies are getting through. The price of nearly everything; rice, soy sauce and even cement has increased. The weather has been completely unseasonable with very little rain falling this month. The rivers are unbelievably low. February normally heralds the start of the fruit season, but without rain the fruit will wither on the branches. Life is tough in the field, inflation is on the way up and, for the orangutans, there could be lean times ahead with the rehabilitants having to rely on supplied food, which is funded entirely by the Orangutan Foundation. We’re laying plans and there is a general upbeat mood; to be honest things can really only get easier! More real orangutan news soon.
Dear Sherri Your point about using illegally felled wood is a good one and is something we have debated at length. There are essentially three options when dealing with illegal loggers: 1. Evict them and thus the fallen wood is left behind Option three is by far and away the best. Wood bought at a Police auction is transparently ‘clean’ and could be used for a good purpose. Unfortunately, this option requires full police involvement and happens infrequently. Our staff have general powers of “citizens arrest” but that isn’t enough. The Police really need to be there at the time of the arrest but, not un-understandably, they are frequently reluctant to press charges against small time loggers who, after all, are just local people. Also, the wood needs to be sold, not given away, as the Police need the proceeds to cover the cost of the trial.
What we find - illegal logging raft Option one is the worst, though this was the strategy we had to use when we were overwhelmed by illegal logging a few years ago. While the wood remains in the forest, someone will be tempted to get it out. Being hardwood the timber remains useable for years after being felled but there is no way either we or the Government could use it. It would appear we were either profiting from the illegal logger’s efforts or, bizarrely, even robbing them. In the local context, where arguably double standards apply, we have to be whiter than white. We simply could not use illegal felled wood directly without someone holding it against us.
Cutting the wood into unusable pieces with police support Option two is the method most commonly used. By chopping up the wood, the logger’s efforts are in vain, resulting in a net loss to them (they hire the chain saws, borrow money for food and equipment etc.) However, without the teeth of a more severe punishment, some people may accept being evicted as a risk worth taking. That’s where Jak comes in. He pushes the Police to at least hold the loggers in custody for some time, even if they do not actually end up in court. People here are scared of the Police and going to jail for an unspecified period of time is a terrifying prospect. This year, we will be trying to fund large signboards along the major rivers, which the Police have requested, saying logging is forbidden and warning of the consequences. The Police always accompany us when the illegally felled wood is destroyed (see photo) but, when it comes to arresting people, they want to be in a position where it is 100% clear; there can be no excuses for logging in these places. Do we admit the system is imperfect? Yes, completely. But is it about as good as we can get it at the present time? Probably. Kind regards Stephen
Dear Theresa and, of course, other readers Thank you very much for your very generous donation. It is much appreciated. You will be pleased to hear Mumsie was returned to Camp Gemini yesterday. She was ready to leave the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine on Monday, but because of the fuel shortage we decided not to make a special journey to take her back but rather to wait until the weekly supply run. Normally we push to get orangutans out of the OCCQ as quickly as possible so this was an exception. However I am sure, in the big scheme of things, a few extra days at the OCCQ won’t have done her any harm. Interesting question about snakes. It is something many people ask about. As would be expected there are lots here but they are very rarely seen. In the forest are reticulated pythons that can grow to enormous lengths (well I consider 5m/16′ enormous!
Same photo of the python but the lower photo has markers to show the snake (photo by Steven Frankham). There are poisonous snakes: cobras, kraits, vipers and keelbacks. Then there are the non-poisonous snakes ranging from the thin racers, through bronzebacks, whip snakes (all fairly common) to water snakes. The interesting thing is I have seen more snakes in town than I have in the forest; I came home once to find a (harmless) racer on my doorstep. They are drawn to town by frogs, toads, rats and mice. Racers are one thing, cobras another - and I have only seen them in two places: palm oil plantations and in town. They like these “unnatural” places because of the unnatural abundance of prey to be found there.
Cobra (photo by Peter Ellen) Cobras are pretty specialised nocturnal hunters and, in town, move around the storm drains. I can not pretend they are commonly seen (once or twice a year maybe?) but we have had two staff members bitten by them in the time I have been here - both when they were walking at night. One was very serious - she required eight days in hospital. The other was less serious and it is believed the snake was surprised and struck before it had filled its venom sacks. Nevertheless he felt queasy and vomited for two days. Unfortunately, we can’t carry antivenin because it needs to be chilled. It is however available at the local hospital. Again, thanks and best wishes, Stephen
Wildlife Direct suggested I give you more information about my life working in conservation with orangutans, what it’s like working as a conservationist, in the field, in Borneo compared with Africa. I will try to give you a better picture of what it is like working in Borneo, a “typical day” if you can call it that. Despite the impression you may have gathered from this blog, like many people in the world, I work in an office in the town of Pangkalan Bun and it feels like 90% of my time is devoted to emails and Excel spreadsheets. The Orangutan Foundation has a conscious policy of capacity building and investing in Indonesians, so I am the only expatriate employee. Indeed, I am the only westerner in town! I am responsible for project supervision and all English language communication, particularly reporting to donors. I have to make regular reports from the field to the overseas offices, disseminate information from those offices to the relevant people in Indonesia, and help with proposal writing and forward planning. Naturally part of my job involves fundraising. I think like most field based people I get so convinced by the worth of the cause I struggle a bit to complete grant applications, especially those using buzz words, for example “Tell us about the multiplier effects of your planned project” (huh, we’re trying to multiply orangutans aren’t we?!) Crucially we have recently received large grants towards habitat protection work. For instance, the United Nations Environment Program with European Union funding supports our work in the Belantikan Hulu; this region contains the largest population of wild orangutans outside of a protected area. However, all of our orangutan rehabilitation work is funded from private donations and last year that cost over US$100,000. As the UK office has grown tired of telling me “Stephen, buying lottery tickets is not a sustainable fundraising strategy!” The Orangutan Foundation office has a friendly relaxed atmosphere and is a lovely place to work from. There is a garden with a fish pond and mango, rambutan and banana trees, producing the most delicious fruit. The whole operations of the Foundation are co-ordinated from the office, we communicate by radio to all our field posts and my colleagues do a truly fantastic job. In the office there is Ully, the Office Manager; Astri, the Liaison Officer, who also helps me with this blog; Jak, the Patrol Manager; Teguh, the Guard Post Supervisor; Devis from Pondok Ambung and finally the Belantikan Conservation Programme team also work from the office. Tigor, who runs the Lamandau Rehabilitation Camps, works out of the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine facility (OCCQ). There are numerous powercuts in Pangkalan Bun and so those lucky enough to have a laptop, Jak, Asti and I, often giggle at the moans coming from the others when the power cuts out! When around the orangutans, or on patrol, we wear a uniform which helps the orangutans to recognise and distinguish between Foundation staff and other people who might pose a threat.
Top photo - outside of the office. This photo -inside of the office Teguh and I are the only Christians. The rest of the people in the office are Moslem & our field staff are a mix of Christian, Moslem and Dayak – which is useful as it means someone is always willing to work on one or other of the religious holidays. Jak and Teguh are married with two children each, Astri is married, Devis is too young, or so we tell him, and everyone is forever teasing Ully about when she’ll get married. However, given her IQ is about the twice that of the rest of us (probably combined) when the time comes, I have no doubt she’ll be the one doing the choosing. Today was a fairly typical day: I was at the OCCQ just after 8 am, as I had to give the vets some darts (injectable syringes for their blow pipe) that have just been donated.
I also wanted to check on a female orangutan, Mumsie, who had been brought down from Lamandau suffering from suspected anaemia - blood loss possibly with malaria. Thankfully she is fine and, all being well, will be returned to the forest in a few days. I then went back to the office. For most of the day I continued writing up our 2007 Annual Report which, as it also has to be in Indonesian, Astri and I did together. The head of one of Tanjung Puting National Park’s management units stopped by to discuss plans for 2008. It was then back to my desk briefly before heading out in the afternoon with Jak to check on a new guard post we are building in Lamandau.
The new post site This post, which will stop people using a river to enter the Reserve, is part funded by the Australian Orangutan Project and I need to update them on progress. We got back to town at 6.30pm and, after having fed myself, I am typing this at 8pm. I’ll stop soon! Apart from us here in Indonesia, there is the UK Office without whose support none of this would be possible. I give them more problems than they deserve and still they continue to back us up 100%. For that I can not thank them often enough. There are two other things that are probably worth saying about my work with orangutans; firstly, unlike just a few short years ago, the sense we have now is no longer of trying to stop orangutans from falling over the brink into extinction but in pulling them further away from the brink. Not everywhere – certainly not across their entire range – but in specific places we are well on the way to saving orangutans, and we should all feel good about that. Vigilance and on-going dedication is still needed; the fires of late 2006 threatened to undo all the gains we had made. Nevertheless, better to focus on the positives than the negatives.
Orangutan in Tanjung Puting National Park (photo by Mark Fellows) The second thing is that, partisan as I may be, the Orangutan Foundation is honest, and that is almost entirely due to the culture Ashley Leiman, the Orangutan Foundation Founder and Director, has established for the organisation. Of course, we’ll tell you our successes, but we’ll also be honest in saying when things don’t go well: in the middle of last year we managed to stop a palm-oil plantation from being established along Lamandau’s borders. But the year before, we failed to stop Tanjung Puting from losing some 5,000 + hectares. In my blog I talk about my work with orangutans but it is not just saving orangutans. What is really great to think about is the incredible biodiversity (proboscis monkeys, gibbons, kingfishers and hornbills -I could go on and on!) found in their habitat that is also protected as a direct result of conserving a flagship species, the orangutan. |
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