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For those of you who are avid readers of our blog posts, you may remember a few weeks ago, a lovely story of poor little orphaned Komeng at Samboja Lestari, finding comfort and friendship in the form of Jovan, an 11 year old male orangutan. From the moment they found each other it was clear they had formed a solid friendship, but this was truly proved during a medical check up last week!
 In a routine health check, the two orangutans needed to be anaesthetised, Jovan, the bigger orangutan, went first. As the vets sadated him, Komeng shouted very loudly at the vets, not very happy at them taking his best friend away. Next, it was Komeng's turn and whilst he was being checked, Jovan was put in his enclosure to recover. As the staff brought back Komeng and placed him back in the enclosure, they noticed Jovan was in the sun, so one keeper climbed in just to move him to the shade.  As the keeper tried to move Jovan, Komeng suddenly awoke, despite being heavily sedated, yelling at the keeper and trying to protect his dear friend Jovan, very quickly (and rather wobbly) moving toward Jovan. .jpg) As the keeper left, Komeng tried to hug Jovan, and move Jovans arms around his own body so Komeng was as close to Jovan as possible. Once completely snuggled next to him, Komeng proceeded to give in to the sedation again and fell back to sleep. And both slept off their busy day! .jpg) So, tiny little Komeng, despite being heavily sedated, wanted to protect his friend so much, that he battled past the anaesthetic and awoke himself to try to save Jovan (from a keeper moving him out of the sun, hehe!) Now that's friendship if ever I heard it! Labels: orangutan, samboja, samboja lestari, volunteer, volunteer with orangutans |
posted by Julie {:(|} @ 6:27 PM
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 .....so I don't know how many of you remember all the talk of the dream team last year....a team of past volunteers and experts who went out to Samboja Lestari in July 2009 to try to implement and pave the way for the volunteer programme that now exists there. Part of our time there was spent working on Island Zero, an unfinished island that could be used to home orangutans from the centre once we had completed it.   The aim was to plant fruiting trees, build feeding platforms and nesting areas and to connect the island up with aerial pathways to allow the orangutans to live, as far as possible, off the ground, and encourage natural movement and behaviours. Thanks to the crazy visions of Rob, our construction expert, we managed to exceed even what we thought was possible, and get ourselves labeled as "Bule Gila" (crazy white people, hehehee!) by the staff as they thought the designs were slightly ambitious, albeit near impossible!      But with dedication and an incredible amount of effort from the whole team; Elaine, Steve, Kay, Hanna, Rob and myself, (along with some AMAZING visiting volunteers along the way!) we worked along side the brilliant staff at Samboja Lestari and made it happen! There was a lot of blood (mainly Robs, he has a talent at bleeding!), sweat (you would just not believe how much, ew!) and tears to get there, but it was worth every single minute of it when we got to look back and see the first orangutans testing out the finished product!   And so a year has now passed since we embarked on our journey to this once strange unknown place called Samboja Lestari, that we now all think of as a second home! And I thought it was a good time to update you on what is happening with the island with some pictures. Here are some gorgeous photos of the orangutans who now call our island bule gila home, Anih, Yuni, Henry, Bong and Misri.   Since the completion of Island zero, some of the other islands have been put to use, including one for the forest school orangutans, and lucky Leo the lonely bachelor, has finally got himself 3 ladies, Juminten, Elisa and Mona. Future plans are to connect Island zero with islands 4,2 and 1, to move Leo's group to island 5, and the orangutans from island 5 to 2, so that all the groups of orangutans who are healthy and eligible for release are together on the connected islands. It was an incredible adventure, and now looking at these orangutans using our platforms and the island, it makes me incredibly happy, as I am sure it will the rest of the team! I just want to say the hugest thanks to all the keepers at Samboja Lestari for making us feel so welcome, for all their incredible strength (without you the "gila" plans would have definitely not been possible) and hard work, and their endless commitment to supporting these wonderful animals! You do a great job, thanks for letting us try to do our little bit!  If you want to volunteer and do your "bit" take a look at the volunteer programme held at Samboja Lestari (and dont worry, this was a one off, there would not be this much construction work to do!!!!!) Labels: Borneo, BOS, East Kalimantan, feeding platform, orangutan, orangutan rehabilitation, samboja lestari, sunbears, the great orangutan project, volunteer, volunteer with orangutans |
posted by Julie {:(|} @ 7:01 PM
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 Here is the story of such a wonderful little orangutan from Samboja Lestari where our  Sadly at the age of just 18 months, Komeng lost his mother and became very depressed without her. He needed companionship and comfort.  Despite spending his days climbing in the trees around the vet clinic, Komeng just was not happy. Staff tried him with another orangutan mother who had lost her baby, but he did not like this, they tried giving him a babysitter, but he was still not happy. He needed the company of another orangutan, not human. Finally, one day, Komeng met 11year old Jovan.  The instant Komeng arrived, he stared at Jovan and proceeded to steal all his food. Jovan had a good look at Komeng, checked him over, and gave Komeng the rest of his food that he was holding. Since then they have been inseparable, and finally Komeng is back to his happy healthy self, thanks to the hard work and dedication of all the BOS staff at Samboja Lestari!Thank you so much Wiwik for your great photos and help! Labels: baby orangutan, gap year, orangutan, orangutan volunteer |
posted by Julie {:(|} @ 7:36 PM
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