Witnessing the reintroduction of Orangutan in Bukit Batikap Conservation Forest, Central Kalimantan

It was a bright sunny day, just 2 more days for us to leave Bukit Batikap Conservation Forest, Central Kalimantan. Last night was our last observation for herpetofauna survey in this location. Since we had nothing to do, we were requested by BOSF to be involved as volunteers in releasing 8 Orangutan on that day, absolutely we love doing that!!. The released location is located in the downstream of Mosu river, 2 hours boating from the basecamp/Posu River. We went there early in the morning, around 7.30 we left base-camp. Earlier, two boats already gone to the location for some preparation. The sky was so blue and beautiful but the landscape view was quite boring since we have been here for almost three weeks. The view of a dark river water and forest standing along the river. We saw lots of bee hives hanging on big trees. That was a bad sign though for us since this creature has been bothering us everyday in the camp together with their relatives. As expected, the beach in which we had to wait the helicopter that carry the Orang Utan was already full of thousand schools of bees, wasps, flies and other unidentified annoying insects. They were so nasty and were not afraid to human, I got stung several time from below on the feet to the head. Most of us got stunk badly. But the spirit for conservation never goes down, for an only living planet

The First released of orangutan on 20 April 2014

The Helicopter carried the Orangutan from Muara Teweh, Central Kalimantan in two trips. The first trip was on 10 am in the morning, and the second trip was on 2 pm in the afternoon. Both trips carried 4 orang utan each. Honestly, the terrible things in this activity was when we had to wait for couple of hours on the helipad, struggling and battling with bees and wasps in a hot sunny day. When the first trip of Orangutan arrived, we swiftly carried them to the appointed location, approx. 15 minutes boating downstream of Mosu River and further 1 hour sailing downstream  for the second trip. We had to carry each carriage which has weight more than 100 kg averagely, that includes the Orangutan and its cage. They named each of the orangutan and inserted a chip on the back of orangutan in order to easily monitored them during the habituation period. One by one the orangutan was released, John and too_cool also had big opportunities to open the cage and released them in the wild.

Ready to rock!!

Based on my observation as this was my first experience, each orangutan has different behaviour when they were being released in the real jungle which obviously not their original habitat. They have been rehabilitated in Nyaru Menteng for quite sometime, some of them were too long to be taking care by human in Nyaru Menteng. However, it was quite relieved to see them running wild again in the forest, though some of them looked confused. They looked around for sometime and then ready to climb the trees. 

One remarkable story from a mother of Orangutan and it's daughter, they name it hardy for the mother and Kiki as daughter. It was interesting to see when Hardy, the mother was first released, she was just stayed there, not straight away looking for something to climb up. She seems confused and looked around to search for her daughter. When the second cage was placed close to her, she stopped the crew who wanted to open it, it seems she wanted to open it by herself. As soon as the cage opened, Kiki ran away and immediately climbed the tree, left her mother alone, confused and eery. Hardy just stayed there and slowly moved following the trail of her daughter. What a fascinating and touching moment.

Hardy hold on tight the cage where her daughter placed,
then hugged Kiki at the moment when she has released.

The second trip was quite interesting too. The released point was 1 km downstream Mosu River, were not far from the first location of released point. In this point, where Mego, the biggest male of orangutan on that day trip was finally running wild again in the wild, even though this location is not his previous home. The first step in the forest he spent for looking around, he was enjoying the moment probably. I had a good chance even though it was a breathtaking moment for me to get closer to him for the first time in order to take his photo closely. 

After a minute or two, he went to where another female orangutan (Sheila) were released earlier. He ran to Sheila just like a hungry orang utan. He was sexually interested maybe as this was the first time for him to encounter female orangutan in the real hutan or forest. Sheila was afraid and she went and climbed a quite big tree just on the side of the river. 

Mego in close up, and when he was chasing the female in a tree

Mego followed her climbed the tree, after some time, Sheila was caught by him in the middle of the tree that overhanging to the river. We were not sure whether or not Mego finally released his sexual emotion towards Sheila. At least, we were happy with the situation that all the released orang utan including Mego were healthy and happy to be there in the real forest. 

Time for family photo after work accomplishment 

Save the forest...

Save the animals...

Save the Earth...

For only a living planet in the universe...



~Da big L~