Volunteers

January 10^th and ten new volunteers arrive in Kuching after a comfortable night at Singgahsana lodge they eagerly await their first glimpses of Matang Wildlife Centre which is going to be their home for the next month.

There are seven woman at the moment as Alex is unwell in Thailand and will join the group later and two men who all seem very nice. There was a welcome barbeque that helps let everybody get to know each other. The weekend is taken slowly to allow everybody to get over their jet lag. By Monday morning everybody has met the animals knows their way around and are raring to go to work.

Macaquettes

It proves to be an interesting week. A baby macaque named Rocky is brought in. He is very young and needs to be bottle fed, he is wormed and put into cage near another young macaque named Juan that has been with us since the summer. The two of them will be integrated together. Juan insists on Rocky’s milk but that’s okay as he is only young himself and will actually do him good as they get as much pleasure from the sucking action as they do from the milk. These two little monkeys provide hours of entertainment for the volunteers and also spend a lot of time grooming anybody who comes near to them. Volunteers have done a great job enriching their cage with ropes, swings and a hammock.

Also this month saw the release of two of the older Macaquettes into the jungle. Local worker Hilary and volunteer Alex trekked for 2 miles to release them into Kubah National Park.

Live food has been bought from the market and all the macaques have been able to forage for meal worms and they have also been fed live crickets, a local supplier has now been found to supply regular live food. All of the macaques are now given leaves daily to play with and this provides hours of enjoyment. Volunteers have been into the forest to collect fruits and a record is being made of where these fruit trees are so that we can collect them regularly and feed a more natural diet.

Sunbears

A lot of work is being done on the new bear enclosure. Holes have been filled in around the enclosure wall to stop them escaping and drainage has been dug outside around to dry the enclosure out. We hope that they will be released next week. Everybody shares my passion for these bears and are working hard to get everything finished as soon as possible

Leo and I went to the local market to get some grubs for all the bears and the four in quarantine were very interested I would like to make this into a weekly trip and buy enrichment food for all the animals at the centre.The new sunbear enclosure has been finished this month the volunteers have worked so hard the weather in the first two weeks was very hot and humid making the digging of a ditch into a drain back breaking work but with no complaints they went on to filling in holes with cement around the enclosure wall to stop the bears digging their way out. Then two platforms with a dual purpose of shelter underneath and a feeding platform on top were erected in the outside enclosure table like benches were made and put in their night dens for them to sleep. A paint fight ended the hard work when the walls of the night dens were finished off with white paint I think some of the volunteers had more paint on them than the walls but sprits where high as the job was completed

The work has been finished in time for the bears to be comfortably moved at the end of the month a big thank you to everyone the work done was tremendous and has meant we are on schedule for the release.

Orangutans

Mamu, who is now 3 and a half years old and unfortunately her mother’s milk has dried up. She was becoming quite seriously underweight for her age as mum had not been caring for her properly, so the decision was taken by Hillary, who has 18 years experience with the rehabilitation of orangutans, that the best thing to do was to remove her from her mother and introduce her to Ting San. This has worked very well with very little stress shown from mother or baby in fact after two or three days.

Mamu has come on leaps and bounds and the weight gain is visible she enjoys the company of Ting San as they now sleep together or at least they try to sleep after all the play fighting it wont be long before she will be joining Ting San on her daily trips to the forest.

Chiam, Mamus mother was back to playing tug of war games with an old piece of rope with one of the volunteers. She has also been copying the construction workers that are building a new orangutan cage in front of her enclosure by trying to dig her way out. She was covered in mud and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Ting San continues to progress well with her daily forest trips spending more and more time in the trees, and is now having a very good knowledge of the fruiting trees within her area. She has been integrated with Mamu, who was separated from her mother Chiam, after losing a lot of weight. Ting San and Mamu play together every night in a joint night den and they are both benefiting from this time together.

Doris continues to go into the forest and was happy to follow our local rehabilitator Hillary into the forest. She is also having good enrichment in the forest. Doris has taken her first steps to freedom by being taken most days into the forest to join Ting San at the platform area. On the 14^th January she was taken by Hilary and Guillaume to Sungai Buloh rangers station about a 50 minute walk away she has done this trip several times now and is appears very relaxed. She is still not climbing trees on a regular basis but has attempted climbing on a couple of occasions, she is extremely happy to swing through the man made ropes at the platform often copying Ting San

Husbandry and enrichment has also been a big part of this months accomplishments volunteers have spent a lot of time jet washing Chiam , Ganti’s and Aman’s enclosure and leaves have played a large part in keeping them amused in as near as possible natural way without providing them with toys, they also use the leaves to shelter from the rain and sun.

Contractors have been here all month building a cage for a male orangutan coming to Matang from Bukkitt Merah vey soon. Chiam has enjoyed watching their hard labour and copying their work.

Wild Cats

Volunteers have been giving dried fish and rice balls mixed with tuna they have enjoyed this.

Veterinary Clinic

Three volunteers spent 2 days cleaning and re-organising the unused vet clinic in preparation for when a new vet is employed, all the equipment has been cleaned and itemised and a new computer donated by Way out Experiences has been installed

A very big thank you for to all the volunteers for their hard work this month

Heather Roberts (current volunteer at Matang)

Please visit my websit to find out more: Heathers Borneo Diary