New Years Day 2008

Well it may be the end of December and the end of the year; but it’s very much the start of the next stage of the great orangutan project’s endeavours at the Matang Wildlife and Rehabilitation Centre, as we enter phase two of our involvement here.

Before I can talk about what’s new I have to extend our thanks to everyone who made getting this far possible.

The November group of volunteers was Keith & Caroline’s last; I think that every volunteer and visitor that met them will know what an asset they were in assisting the centre to raise animal husbandry standards. They were also the custodians of the project on the ground for us and the face of WOX to our volunteers. In all things the effort and hours they contributed cannot be understated; without them successfully completing the infrastructural phase of the project we would not be able to begin our part in the rehabilitation of animals at MWC.
Thanks also to the Forestry dept, Matt, Wong, Lisa, James, Laurence and Heather for your invaluable help along the way.

Mostly though a tremendous thank you to each and every one of our past volunteers!
It is impossible for me to articulate how interminably grateful we are to you all.
This isn’t a job for any of us; it is an attempt to make a positive difference towards the conservation of endangered species, particularly the orangutan, within Borneo & that’s no small feat.
We undertake this challenge because we believe that there are people like us, who, wanting the same will give their time, money & sweat into making it happen.
There is not a single thing we have done, or will do, that could have been done without you.
Thank you is an understatement.

As for December……..
Well all of the new staffs are settling in very nicely.

One of WOX’s rehabilitation officers Hillary has been taking his charge, Ting San, out to the jungle feeding platforms every day for rehabilitation training and has begun to teach her how to make nests. He and I have begun an entirely natural diet for her (with the addition of milk) & we make up a nest for her in her night-den each evening to return to and familiarize herself with the feeling of sleeping amidst leaves.

We unsuccessfully tried this with our older females; but will need to be a little more inventive as they simply destroyed the ones we made for them.

We were both concerned that Mamu is a little underweight given that she is nearly 3 years old. Chiam stopped producing milk shortly after returning to the centre so we have decided to bottle feed milk formula to her and her daughter as Hillary feels this is the easiest way to start her lactating again and even if it fails it will be extra nutrition for Mamu.
Much easier said than done though as both Chiam and Ganti always try to steal whatever you are giving to Mamu; but we’ve managed to get milk to Mamu each day so far.

We’ve also recruited another experienced orangutan rehabilitator out of his recent retirement to fill the hole left by Hillary’s departure from Semenggoh (our sister sanctuary)

Our volunteer coordinator Alvin has been perhaps the busiest of us all helping me with doing all of the jobs we would normally rely on volunteers to undertake. After he’s fed, cleaned and medicated all of his charges; he’s out in the jungle looking for wild fruits and nesting materials. Then each afternoon we’ve been giving all of the animals their enrichment before preparing the clinic for the new WOX veterinarian.

(Thanks to Marcia from the last two groups for all of your enrichment ideas I’ve tried several & got the papier-mâché, forage mats & seaweed nests to work J You’ll be interested to know that the eldest female pig tail appeared to dominate on the feeds and that we can move/bribe them from one cage to another quite easily. Also the bears & binturong really loved the blood; which we spread around their enclosure or gave in ice blocks)

At the moment we are hiding all of the orangutan & bear feeds either in puzzles or distributed around their enclosures & high on the feeding platforms in order to amuse and make them work for their food; particularly Aman.
As soon as we have more volunteer hands on the ground again we’ll extend that to all of animals.

Alvin has also been helping me and the contractors with the new sun bear rehabilitation night dens; where the welding has been hampered a little by continual rain and recurrently failing electrical supply; but as I write this there is now only the roof left to go. And as Heather rightly said to me today, there are four bears that are going to have a very Happy New Year

A provisional & flexible release plan has been agreed for the deer, and most orangutan Chiam, Ganti, Doris & Mamu and volunteer work for the beginning of next year will be focused on making this happen.
The keepers, Alvin and I have been spending a long time traipsing around the deepest areas of Matang and Kubah & have selected a location that is far enough away from human habitations and the centre to consider suitable for releasing, feeding and monitoring Chiam.
Along with making ready for our new orange arrivals; the first of whom, a 17yr old male, is due in January.

Guillaume & I attended the Hornbill conference for conservation in Sarawak where Francis Gombek (forestry dept) & I presented our rehabilitation plan for all of the sun bears. We’ll put this up on the site for those that are interested in January along with video of their January transfer and the beginning of the rehabilitation training.

I spent four days over Christmas in the deep jungles of Batang Ai (the long term full wild release site for orangutan successfully rehabilitated at Matang) & received a wonderful present from one of the local Iban communities we work with; when they formally agreed with WOX to no longer hunt any animals for food, apart from the wild boar.

Mr Jugah (who many volunteers may know as Apai) also retired from the forestry department at the end of this year. Since he hand-reared Chiam, Ganti, Doris & most of the orangutans MWC have previously released; we felt that we needed his experience and animal relationships a little bit longer (At least until we have released & integrated Chiam & Ganti as he’s the only person who can safely handle them right now)
So WOX have made him an offer he can’t refuse and taken him on as our third rehabilitation officer. His job with us at the moment is to concentrate solely on Doris and throughout the next 6 months he’ll continue to take her out to the feeding platforms every day for as long as we can keep her there.

One last thank you to almost two years of volunteers; you all brought funding in order for us to be here and provide animals like Aman and Doris with opportunities, you brought your energy to mix cement or lay down boardwalk & brick in tropical heat.

Most of all though you brought the animals, the staff & this centre your love and that is what you bring best.

Happy New Year

Leo and all at Matang

Labels: great orangutan project, Malaysia, matang wildlife centre, orang utan, Orangutans and Rehabilitation, sunbears