Aman, our big 19 year old male, is enjoying his new low level decking that keeps him out of the mud in his favourite corner of his enclosure. We are all getting very excited at the prospect of his cataract eye surgery in a month’s time! We had a fantastically successful fundraising evening at the Jambu restaurant in Kuching with the owners Chris and Ashfa who kindly combined their 2nd anniversary with a “Save Aman’s Eyes” fundraising event. A stunning print of Aman’s face, a signed drawing of Aman by Keith Lloyd, our resident expert, and an Aman t-shirt were all auctioned and at the end of the night a grand total of RM2,850 (£425) was raised! That will nearly pay for the anesthetist to fly from South Africa to Kuching in May. Fantastic!!! Hopefully, the online appeal will also bring in more pennies (and pounds and dollars…) to help to pay for everything from bottles of eye drops to the surgeon’s accommodation and freighting the delicate equipment around the world. It isn’t too late to donate. Please send your money NOW, see the link on this website for details - http://www.orangutanproject.com/index.php?prd_sub_id=24

And as great as all that news is, I have some MORE exciting news, hot off the press….. drum roll please……… Keith was rewarded for working today on a Sunday as he was the first to see LENA”S NEW BABY! Yes folks! The self released lady has finally given birth, we think to a girl and she chose to come back to the orangutan building when Keith was in there painting Gus’s new den (the rescued orphand orangutan), to show him her orange bundle of fluff. That really shows the degree of trust she has in him to choose him as the first one to show her new baby to and even let him take photographs from 3 feet away…very special stuff.



Lena and new baby return to the Orangutan Building

So, as if we needed another excuse to ask for donations…Aman now has a second (probably) daughter who he will be able to SEE once he has the surgery. Please help this fantastic cause.

The bear project (to get 4 bears out from terribly cramped cages into a larger outdoor area) is underway, with contractors quoting for the wall that will section off the end of Doris’ enclosure to become bear land. Thanks to incredibly generous donation from Heather, an ex-volunteer, and her husband Gareth, we can start as soon as possible. We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks to the improved diet regime as well as regular mind bending and stimulating enrichment activities for the animals, there has been a definite increase in spring like behaviours in some of our animals; we have seen two bears mating and the two binturong (bear cats) enjoyed a ‘special hug’ as well the other day. Although we are pressed for funds and for space, the fact that the animals are not pacing and plucking any more from hunger and boredom, and are engaging in such flirtatious behaviour must mean that they are feeling more contented with their lives. We are waiting to see if the crocodile eggs are indeed fertile and will hatch…yet another example of natural behaviour resulting almost certainly from improved conditions and diets.

Last bit of news for now is that we are currently raising another orphan Sambar deer (marsh deer) that was rejected by his mother. Gus has enjoyed helping out with bottle feeding and surprisingly has met a creature with nearly as much attitude as she has. It was hilarious seeing a 3 day old deer stamping his hooves next to a startled one and a half year old orangutan! I am sure that they will forge a strong friendship, since although that seems unlikely, Doris (orangutan) and Judy and Jacob (Sambar deer) have demonstrated to all their fondness for each other with play fighting and stroking. The baby has been named Little Leo, after our newest team member Leo, who has spent two weeks with us, finding out how the programme and Matang Wildlife Centre run. It has been great working with him.

Well, I have had my hour of peace, I can hear Gus stirring so it must be time to chop up more fruit and veg and get ready for the bundle of energy to burst forth into action….

Labels: baby rehabilitation, lena, orang utan, orangutan diary, Orangutans and Rehabilitation, volunteer

The plan for Gus is to befriend her with Doris, a process which we have started by spending an hour or so each day next door to Doris, letting the two girls get acquainted by swapping food items, playing mini tugs of war and just gazing at each other. They now seem quite relaxed in each other’s company and we will actually go in with Doris in the next week. We’ll keep you posted!

Once they are good friends, Doris and Gus can live next door to each other and then in months to come we can start taking them out into the forest and teaching them about forest foods and how to gather them. It is a long term project but one that will hopefully result in two semi-wild, contented, safe orangutans who spend their life in the forest but visit the feeding platform for supplementary food and for health checks (which can simply be a visual once over by a keeper).

Gus (aka Augustina) the confiscated orang utan has been with us for over 2 months now and never has one small creature demanded so much time, effort and love…and because of her gorgeous looks and winning character she has received all that and more!!!
Gus now weighs in at 8kgs which has been a healthy, steady gain from the 6kg on arrival. She has had health checks by a human GP and a local vet and has been tested for malaria (thankfully negative), Hep A and meliodosis (results pending). Her heart and lungs are clear and she really does look the picture of health.

She travels daily from our house to Matang Wildlife Centre in the car, which she loves (she has a travel cage on the back seat) as long as the car is moving! If the car stops then she tests the strength of the cage door and all 4 padlocks are needed to contain her!

During the day she joins in with all sorts of activities such as preparing behavioural enrichment items like rice balls or husk parcels for the other animals and even has some herself some days! She then accompanies whoever is free on the rounds, feeding the bears, binturong, civet, porcupines, macaques, gibbons and of course the orangutans.

She is getting used to the building where she will soon live…her new nursery is looking very swanky in citrus colours but the building needs some major work before it is totally safe for her to be left there. Keith is now cross eyed from all the painting of bar work in there! At the moment it is open to external assault from Lena and Ganti and also is subject to constant and vigorous vandalism from 3 yr old Mamu who loves squeezing in and out of her den, much to her mother, Chiam’s distress. So the sooner the building is repaired the better for all concerned!
Gus sometimes has a midday nap and then is raring to go in the afternoon, playing in the trees, or creating havoc in the manager’s office.



Each evening she gladly piles into the car and it is back home with us. Then she has another hour or so climbing and hanging, stretching and rolling on her home jungle gym that Keith has lovingly created for her. This has become something of an attraction locally, with up to 50 people at any one time admiring and interacting with her! It is a good chance to educate the locals and talk about the plight of orangutans generally, though how much of the message gets across is not clear…many people do not see a problem with having an orangutan as a pet.

It’s not just people who visit her; we have had special visits from a neighbours’ rabbit and even a pig tailed macaque who has also been hand raised and who may be surrendered to Matang in the next few months. She has won the hearts of her fans; a German boy dropped off a hard boiled Easter egg on Good Friday, and locals will often drop by with some fruit for her. It is great as she gets though quite a bit of fruit, veg, leaves, yoghurt, cheese and milk each day.

After her play, she comes inside for a bottle of milk and plays in her night cage until about 8 or 9pm. Then her last bottle is around 10pm (if we can stay awake) and hopefully she may sleep through until the 6.30 alarm call and a new day begins!