Our beloved Aman featured in the London newspaper, The Metro, today showing the world what fantastic progress he is making. Before his cataract operation in May last year Aman was blind but his eyesight is now fully restored and he's making the most of it...

"Meet Aman, king of the swingers and – thanks to a pioneering eye operation – a lean, mean love machine. The 20-year-old orangutan is feeling like a new ape after living in darkness for half his life. He's lost 10kg, toned up and chilled out – all of which makes him quite a catch in ape circles....." Read the full story on the Metro Online: Orangutan's got the look of Love

Or click here to find out more about Aman

Labels: Borneo, great orangutan project, Malaysia, orang-utan, orangutan volunteer

More updates on the sun bears progress by current volunteer Heather:

Monday 4th February

The time had arrived to let the bears out into their new enclosure, the decision was made to allow the less dominant bears Corrine and Jo out first to try and lessen territorial disputes. Food was placed on the outside ladders to tempt them down.

However only Corrine ventured out as Jo was still too nervous. Corrine walked around eating and licking up the honey, she spent about 5 minutes out not venturing very far but certainly not pacing and quite at ease. Her entry back into the dens was through Jo’s door and there was a moment of concern when for the first time the two bears met. Fortunately, there was not a sound they acted as if they had been together all their lives. Although Jo never made it outside a big step had been made in introducing them to each other.

Next Bernie was let out. He was still on his own as Situ had not yet been moved. He is the dominant male and when Corrine approached him there was a fight which probably sounded worse than it was, but thankfully there were no injuries. After what seemed a long time, but in fact was only a few minutes, the two bears were exploring the enclosure once again as if they had always been together. It was very emotional to see them finally outside.

I watched them wondering to myself what they were thinking and whether they were enjoying the moment as much as myself and all the volunteers that were watching them.

On Tuesday Sarawak Forestry resident rehabilitation officer, John Colam, successfully darted Situ and with the help of volunteer Belle, who is a veterinary nurse, and she was moved safely to her new den.

Bernie has been let into the outdoor enclosure to allow us access to their night den and to give Situ time to recover peacefully. The whole procedure of moving these bears to their new home has been amazing, better than could ever of been expected. It was done quietly and professionally with very little stress involved. I feel it was a very touching moment for everybody to witness these bears have their first taste of freedom and I know that all previous volunteers and staff will be thrilled that everything has gone well.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who made this possible.

We managed to catch everything on video. Visit our YouTube channel if you can't see them

Knocking out the Sun bears

Sun bear recovery

Sun bears see the sun

Heather

Labels: Borneo, conservation, Malaysia, orangutan, sunbears rehabilation, volunteer, volunteer with orangutans

Here's a report on the sunbear move to thier new enclosure by current volunteer Heather

It’s nearly a year since I first came to Borneo and finally 3 out of the 4 sunbears in quarantine have been moved to their new home. Situ a female sunbear was the only one who failed to respond to the anesthetic and has to be left for a few days to recover before she can be sedated again. The other 3 Bernie, Jo and my favourite Corinne were successfully moved without any stress.


They were sedated and then the vet allowed me to assist him with his health checks, they were weighed first and then he gave them a complete health check including a sample of blood to be analysed.


The weather was horrendous and in order to keep them dry and warm we transported them the short distance to their new home in a wheelbarrow covered in hessian sacks. One of this months volunteers, Bella, is a veterinary nurse and she was able to stay with all the bears while they were recovering. All 3 of them woke up after about an hour and surprised us all by being extremely calm and well adjusted to their new surroundings. They are now able to see each other through connecting grills in their night dens and it was expected that there would be some aggression when they saw each other but after a few growls of disapproval they left each other alone.

Doris is 7 years old female orangutan who has spent 7 years in various enclosures and cages in Matang Wildlife Centre. Though she had been released thrice into the rainforest, she returned on every occasion to the security of her cage and the regular meals. Her best friends during these years have been Sambar Deer, who share her enclosure, and humans, both those who are her custodians and those that visit the Centre. A lack of contact with the wild had left Doris wary of the jungle and some even thought she would never climb a tree.

That has all changed. Since the beginning of January, we have been employing a local Malaysian who is skilled in rehabilitation and together with other staff and volunteers, we have been repeatedly taking Doris into the forest. Some of these early outings can be seen on the video clips on this website. We have also started to introduce Doris to baby Ting San and Mamu, which has proved a great success and is allowing her to spend more time with her species and giving her the confidence to climb with them into the tree canopy.



We normally severely limit volunteers' interaction during the rehabilitation process, however, Doris is an exception as she finds the human presence a comfort. We therefore allow a small group of 2 or 3 people to join the outings for educational purposes.

By the end of January, Doris has been regularly walking 50 minutes into the jungle, to a ranger station where we hope to start spending nights outdoors with her. Simply getting her to walk so deep into the forest is a major achievement in itself but on the very last day of January, she disappeared off by herself for half an hour. After searching and calling we eventually found her a small distance away half way up a tree! This is fantastic news and we were ecstatic to see this. The fact that she has the confidence to leave our presence for such an extended time, and that she used that time to climb into the trees and explore her natural domain after only a month's training is very promising for the future. She is also regularly eating natural foods from the forest rather than bananas an papayas. This has been helped by our "Behavioural Enrichment" program that supplements her feed with fruits from the jungle so that she learns gradually some of the 450 different plant species that orangutans have been found to eat in the wild.



Doris' rehabilitation will continue throughout February and we will keep you posted with any and every significant progress.