Rotation Three – Outdoor Clinic 3 1/2 – 6 year old

Back with Orangutans! Have been missing the babies so much, really looking forward to meeting the slightly older outdoor clinic babies. Although not technically babies, they’re aged 4 to 8 – they’d still be in continuous and very close contact with their mothers til the age of 7 or 8, so they’re still just wee young things to me.

Kasi -fluffy round little buddah. Eats voraciously, using hands and feet to stuff her mouth with as much food at one time as possible. Watching one day I swear I saw her get four banana’s in one go. She couldn’t actually shut her mouth it was so full of banana. Kasi is really  independent and usually off in the trees straight away, often stays out over lunch and sometimes overnight. It’s a strange sight to see the silhouette of a tiny Orangutan using vines to climb up the side of towering tree when that tiny silhouette has a huge round pot belly, nearly as wide as she is tall.
Lumiud – another confident climber who likes to swing on the ropes and throw herself about in bushy trees… hear branches snapping and crashing through leaves? That’s Lumiud
Cinta – delicate long-limbed Cinta (which means ‘love’ in Malay). Gentle and lovely, prefers to stay close to the platforms
Matamis – little miss mischief likes to play fight, sometimes goes up in the trees but will often jump off the platforms just to get us to chase after her and make her climb
Kalabatu- Little Mr Mischief. The bad boy you just have to love.

A five-minute walk away from the indoor clinic the ‘outdoor area’ is on the edge of the jungle. There are much bigger climbing platforms and a big hammock made of old firehoses woven together. Ropes connect all the platforms and extend out into some big trees in the jungle.

After prepping their food and cleaning the cages we sat outside to watch the Orangutans and try to tell them apart. The first morning, as amazing as the Orangutans are, was a looooong morning. Sitting and watching for three hours. And it’s baking hot. You’re boots begin to burn you’re feet just because they’re in the sunlight. At one stage we were standing, backed up against the wall in a narrow sliver of shade like sweaty uncool vampires.

By the second day I began to identify individuals apart so it was much more entertaining,  really satisfying seeing the next stage of rehabilitation.
Although the Orangs are still kept inside over night and given food morning and lunch and evening, they’re free to go off climbing up huge tall trees in the jungle.
If they don’t want to come in at any stage they’re just left out, but kept track of.

From day one Kalabatu and I had a connection. I walked up to the edge of the hammock where he was lying and he looked me deep in the eyes .. then viciously swiped at my face and snatched my mask of. Gave me a hell of a fright.
A bit later on, all four of us were sitting and Kala swung off the ground and ran at us full tilt. We had no idea what he was going to do but Ruth and I just grabbed him by his hands and feet as he tried to bite us and we hurled him back up into the hammock. He then proceeded to sulk. I hoped he didn’t hate me, so I made sure to give him his bottle at lunch. He didn’t hold a grudge.

Before we take them inside we have to rinse their muddy hands and feet. There’s a tap on a stump. We take the O’tangs by the hand (they usually hold their hands up to be taken) and help them up on the the stump where they sit. They know the routine and when you say ‘ok, give me your other hand’ they understand. We also have to wash our gumboots as well. The orangutans sitting on the stump will often put a hand on one of my shoulders to help me balance. Oh yeah, I’m constantly falling in love.
One day, Kala and I were waiting for the others to wash, it was raining so we sat down next to each other and I put my arm around him to try to shelter him a bit. He snuggled into my armpit and then pushed my elbow off my knee so he could rest his hand there on my leg instead.
If an Orangutan doesn’t want to do something, their primary defence is biting. I’ve been bitten by all the outdoor babies but never hard enough to leave a mark, that’s not to say they don’t/can’t lose control.
One of the rangers got bitten by a scared Orangutan and nearly lost her finger, it was cut down to the bone and she was off work for over 2 months.

Besides all the special ‘moments’ shared with different Orangutans, one of the highlights of the outdoor rotation, was seeing a rehabilitated ape, Clennan, come to the platform at feeding time, with her new baby born in the wild.
I took some photos when we saw her on our first day at Sepilok from the public viewing platform. When she came to the outdoor platform, I didn’t want to antagonise her so kept a reasonable distance, but still got to within about 3 metres of her and her delicate wee infant. Clennan’s hand is bigger than my head but her baby’s head could fit inside my hand. The baby just stares around appearing to slowly take things in with his/her huge eyes. S/he is still to young for the rangers to know what her sex is. And she’s not named yet. One ranger, who is really talented and intelligent suggested Vaneesha (which is how they say my name) I think that’s a really clever idea.

Clennan and her baby (Vaneesha)