Danur gets all four hands wet!

Batikap has very hot days. On one of those days, Joy and Owang from our monitoring team arrived at camp with strange news about Danur. Even they could not really believe it, and they knew that nobody else would, so they brought us a video… of Danur swimming!  When they told us, we really didn’t believe them, we thought it was a just a joke, but then they showed us the video. And yes, we really do have a swimmer in our orangutan group!  At first, Danur went very close to the water a couple of times looking as though he was thinking about going in, but nothing happened. The day got hotter and eventually he could not resist and in he went for a lovely swim!

No-one has ever seen wild orangutans swimming – they stay out of the water because of the risk of crocodile attack and because they are not adapted for swimming – they sink very easily. Thus it was a great surprise when orangutans on the islands at Nyaru Menteng started entering the river and experimenting with different swimming techniques. At first they waded in to try to retrieve food that had fallen from the feeding platforms into the water, and in so-doing they slowly got used to being in the water. Some of them started wading up to their neck, others realised they could use floating logs to support their weight and take them into deeper water. Eventually some of them started copying fishermen and tried to catch fish – and were successful on many occasions! These behaviours spread through the population by social learning until many of the males and some of the females became confident in the water. Now that they have been released, it is perhaps unsurprising that these behaviours remain.

The river in Batikap is much faster-flowing than at Nyaru Menteng, and can rise and fall rapidly after rains, so the orangutans need to be more careful here. Danur is confident in the water, but it appears he is keeping to areas where he can touch the bottom with his feet. He remains deep in the forest, paddling and swimming in the shallow Posu River upstream from our camp. He appears to be crossing the river by wading and then launching himself with a jump and a few paddle strokes across a narrow stretches of deep water. Despite this, ‘true’ swimming is still not known in orangutans. He wouldn’t be able to cross the deeper, wider rivers that lie downstream.

Text and Photos courtesy of BOS Foundation

Markisa & Family

This family is really special. Markisa is taking care of Uli and Mango is taking care of the entire family.  Manggo and her sister Uli both look healthy and they really enjoy playing together. Mango is very protective, and if the monitoring team gets too close she will kiss squeak and breaks branches off the trees. Markisa on the other hand is very gentle, always taking care of baby Uli. They move together and like to travel very much. They love to be together and it is very special to see Uli when her sister Mango comes close, they touch each other, rest, eat and then travel again. We have a lovely photo of Markisa, very quiet letting little Uli sleep, it was a wonderful sight and really sweet.

Leo watches the watchers

It has been two weeks since Leo, Juminten and Titin are enjoying the beauty of the nature in Kehje Sewen Forest. Since being reintroduced last April 14, 2013, they started to adapt with the real forest life. It was the first time we released adult orangutans in East Kalimantan after releasing six juveniles last year. So it is crucial to closely monitor the adaptation of the “Big Three” in their new home.

Leo, the Ruler!

Among the three orangutans, Leo is the only male. He has quickly become the ruler in the forest around Lembu River, the place where they were reintroduced. Leo was off to a slow start, though. For the first three days, he wasn’t eating very much. But soon after that, Leo immediately showed his ability to adapt to a new place. He began to discover the area of Lembu River by swinging from one tree to another and started to try diferent kinds of food. He also flawlessly built a nest to rest when the sun set. It was an excellent start for King Leo!

The Post Release Monitoring (PRM) Team has also started nest-to-nest monitoring activity. In the beginning, following Leo was not easy because he looked uncomfortable, continuosly kiss squeaking and throwing twigs to the team who followed him. It is obvious that Leo doesn’t like to be surrounded by humans. So we reduced the number of observers in the team to only three people per orangutan (before, we dispatched more people for backup just in case Leo became aggressive). Now Leo is calmer and seems to be habituated with the observers. Leo has travelled around 700 metres from his release point. Radio telemetry signal indicates that Leo is continuously moving away from the release point. It is becoming harder to follow him, not because he is kiss squeaking but because he is moving so quickly!

See more photos and read more here.