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!