News from Bukit Tigapuluh
Field reports on Temara's progress in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.
27 February 2008
Perth Zoo Exotics Curator Leif Cocks and Primates Supervisor Clare Campbell visited Bukit Tigapuluh National Park on 26 and 27 February to check on Temara'a progress. Whilst there, Leif and Clare were able to observe her activities and gave her a close physical inspection. They found Temara was in good mental health and her overall physical condition was good, although she had low body fat levels following a very poor fruiting season. The fruiting season is now coming to an end and Temara is eating liana leaves for about one hour and 30 minutes a day. She is also eating approximately two to three types of fruit per day, although the number of types of fruit that she finds is highly variable. She likes to eat figs that are common in her current location and Kedondongs. The large number of fig trees in the area makes it ideal orangutan habitat. Temara has also been receiving supplementary food from her trackers. She never comes to the ground and makes good nests for sleeping. She normally wakes up between 9am and 10am, which is now a lot earlier in the day than when she was first released. In general, these are very good developments.
The duration and intensity of fruiting seasons in Sumatra can be quite variable. This has been the worst fruiting season on record and is now ending as we go into the dry non-fruiting season. However, her current location offers the best quantity of out of season fruiting, such as figs. The trackers will continue to monitor her daily and will be increasing her supplementary diet regime during the non-fruiting season.
January 2008
Temara remains near the River Pengian and is slowly travelling south. She is now 500 m from where she was in December. She has established herself in an area used as a traditional rubber plantation which contains plenty of semi-wild fruit trees. This area has been used by many other reintroduced orang-utans over the past two years and nearly all orang-utans from the reintroduction centre visit this area once in a while.
13 December 2007
From Project Assistant Doris Kelle:
I visited Temara this morning. She is still situated 2 km south of the station at the River Pengian.
She had built a nest up high in a ficus tree and was asleep. Her tracker Parizal told me she had been eating ficus fruit all morning. She is moving a lot from tree to tree but only going in circles. She seems to like the place. Looks like she doesn´t want to come back closer to the station yet. There are lots of fruiting trees down there so there is no need to go anywhere else. Her trackers have built a little bamboo shelter camp to make sure they can be with her in time every morning.
23 November 2007
From Project Director Peter Pratje:
I visited Temara this morning and she is looking in excellent condition. She is now camping about 2 km south-west of the station on the banks of the Pengian River. Three other orang-utans, Candy, Nopi and Nyoman are near her but she doesn’t pay them much attention. It also appears that Temara is not too keen on the additional food we offer her as she is finding lots of ficus fruits in the trees surrounding her new home. This is a good sign that she is getting enough food by herself.
July 2007 Update
From Kylie Bullo:
I visited Bukit Tigapuluh National Park from 20–24 July 2007 to film part of a new documentary, The Last Trimate, which features the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park release site for the Sumatran Orang-utan reintroduction program. The story of Temara is also included. This documentary, by Fork Films, will be shown around the world and should raise much needed awareness about the plight of both Sumatran and Borneo Orang-utans.
The drive into Bukit Tigapuluh National Park was arduous and took eleven-and-a-half hours. Some parts of the track were extremely muddy and difficult to get through, resulting in the vehicles breaking down and getting bogged. It was a great relief to finally arrive at the site at 10pm and get some sleep.
The trip was well worth it for me as I was able to visit Temara on three consecutive days. She was in very good condition. Her hair is longer and very shiny. It is now the dry, or ‘non-fruiting’, season but Temara has moved to an area where there is some fruit still available. Her tracker reported that she is eating liana fruits and leaves, ficus fruit, stem, cambium and some other fruits. Temara is still receiving some supplementary food late in the day, however, we will start to vary this routine shortly so she doesn’t become lazy. This change will include not feeding her on some days but giving her extra on other days. Temara then can’t rely on receiving supplementary food every day and will most likely increase her foraging.
An exciting development in Temara’s release is that she is now very close to a young adult female named Mena and her two-month-old female infant Miriam. Temara has shown interest in the new mother and even tried to touch baby Miriam a few days ago. She was chased away for her efforts but she shouldn’t expect anything less after she hit the mum a few days before. Despite these minor disputes, both females seem quite relaxed being in close proximity to each other and this will be fantastic observing experience for Temara.
At present there are no males of a suitable age in the area that could mate with Temara. This is a positive situation, however, as it would be best if Temara did not fall pregnant until next year when she has more forest experience behind her. There are also two juvenile orang-utans foraging close to Temara.
5 June 2007
Temara moved to a different trail on 2 June after spending nearly two months in the one area. The fruiting season has finished and it was no longer feasible for her to stay in the same area as she was mainly feeding on leaves. Temara still looks in good shape. Her trackers are monitoring her condition and will give her supplementary food when needed.
Temara is now very close to the young orangutan ‘play group.’ These are young orangutans that are closely monitored by trackers and some are taken back to the large cage at night, depending on their forest skills. The group that Temara is close to consists of four young orangutans named Mona, Ahli, Nyoman and Bona. They are all excellent at finding fruit and seem to be quite excited to have Temara in their area. The young orangutans often check Temara’s nest when she settles down for a nap. As this behaviour constantly disturbs Temara, it often encourages her to move out of her nest and observe what her young counterparts are doing.
Temara is now feeding on fruits in a large Kranji tree. It is important that Temara doesn’t just feed on leaves in the non-fruiting season. There are still some fruits available as well as a range of other nutritious food including bark and termites. It is hoped that Temara will stay near her play group companions so she can learn more wild behaviours and become more independent.
14 May 2007
Update from Project Director Peter Pratje:
Temara happily spends her time around track CT 200 where she has a huge nest some 25 metres off the ground in a Kruing tree. She is still browsing the surrounding area, mainly for Kranji fruits. At the moment she is back to her old habit of sleeping until late in the day.
25 April 2007
Update from Project Director, Peter Pratje:
Temara has been doing well. She moved into a new trail about a week ago which is close to a small tributary of the Pengian river. This area is also the core area of another released female orang-utan called Desi. Temara followed Desi for a while, at a respectable distance, and learned a lot about edible fruits and bark.
Temara is taking longer naps now and sleeping late in the morning. She is feeding a lot on kranji fruits, like many of the other orang-utans around our camp. Temara’s trackers will now be closely monitoring the total amount of food that Temara is eating to ensure that her calorie intake is sufficient. At present, Temara is receiving two boiled eggs per day as well as some supplementary fruits when she will take it. She often refuses to come down to receive food from her trackers during the day.
26 March 2007
Temara continues to succeed and flourish in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. The last two months has seen a very productive fruiting season and Temara has been taking full advantage of this. Temara had lost some weight when Kylie left Bukit Tigapuluh in mid-January, however, the latest photos and eye witness accounts note that Temara is in excellent condition and has put on some weight. Temara has been staying in a relatively small area close to a river as the fruit is plentiful in this location. She is exhibiting wild orang-utan feeding and behavioural patterns by putting on weight and condition during the nutrient-rich fruiting season in order to assist her coping in the dry season when minimal fruit is available.
Temara is now only receiving supplementary feeding approximately once a week due to the plentiful food supply and Temara's lack of interest in her trackers. Temara has also encountered some more young released orang-utans, however, she has shown little interest in socialising with them. She continues to be the dominant female in the area due to her large size and personality.
19 February 2007
Update from Project Director, Peter Pratje:
Temara has moved after staying three weeks in a row circling between three Jackfruit trees. She is still at the river bank of Pengian looking for new food sources.
6 February 2007
Update from Project Director, Peter Pratje:
Temara is continuing to do well and seems to still have the strategy of staying in a small area for as long as she can and only moving on once the food sources have been exhausted. She even collects food in the next tree and returns to her nest to eat in bed. The fruit season is at its peak and she is now eating her way through a jackfruit tree.
Importantly, Temara is often not even coming down for extra food from her trackers, which indicates that she is finding enough food on her own and not hungry.
At the moment, she is at an old release site next to the Pengian river. The areas surrounding rivers in orang-utan habitat are renowned for being a rich food source. Also, she is also still nesting later than most other orang-utans.
10 January 2007
News from Kylie Bullo
Week Eight Update
I have spent my last week out in the Sumatran jungle observing Temara in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. Despite a slow start to week 8, Temara finally moved away from her comfortable nesting area on Saturday 6 January 2007. She travelled to a new area on the east side of ‘Z Trail’. Temara fed on numerous new fruits and leaves, and travelled well.
On Saturday morning (7/1/07), Martina and I arrived at Temara’s nesting site at 9.30am to an unexpected surprise. I was at Bukit Tigapuluh National Park for five weeks in October/November 2005. I spent a lot of time helping to take the juvenile orang-utans out on their forest lessons. My favourite was a young male named John Deere who was ~6yrs old. He wasn’t the most attractive orangutan, with a poor coat, a little, bald head and a large roll of fat under his chin. But he had a fantastic personality and was very confident in the forest. When he got tired he would come to the ground, put his arms up in the air and make a very distinctive squeaking sound, wanting cuddles. John Deere was released in November 2005 and quickly disappeared from the trail system so was no longer followed. No one had seen him for a year, so when we arrived at Temara’s nesting site and I heard the trackers yelling out “John Deere” I couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t think it was him at first as he looked so different and had a beautiful long coat. However, when he squeaked, I knew it was him!
Temara soon came out of her nest to observe what all the fuss was about. As soon as John Deere saw Temara he climbed straight up to visit her. Then five seconds later he came screaming back down the vine with Temara chasing him. However, they spent the entire day following each other and interacting at times. They even nested in the same tree and came into contact again on 10 January. It would be advantageous for Temara if she spent some time with John Deere as he has very advanced forest skills, including breaking open termite nests and stripping spiky rotan palms to get to the inner stem to eat.
From Sunday 7 January until Wed 10 January (end of Week 8) Temara spent most of her time in a terap tree and mostly fed on the large terap fruit (approximately the size of a small mango). This was quite interesting as Temara never ate this fruit in the first few weeks after her release. She may be eating them now because they are riper and taste better, however, I think it is probably because she is hungrier and knows that her supplement feed late in the day is not enough.
As I prepare to leave Bukit Tigapuluh on 13 January, I have mixed emotions. It will be difficult and sad for me to leave Temara, however, I feel confident that she has adjusted extremely well to forest life and will continue to flourish. Temara has exhibited many behaviours that indicate she will be able to successfully survive in the wild. These include good foraging skills, travelling to new areas to find varied food sources, exhibiting successful and appropriate interactions with other orang-utans in the area and has excellent nest building skills. Temara has also shown a good balance between healthy curiosity and being wary of new things. Temara is much more relaxed and confident in her forest environment, very rarely comes to the ground, spends most of her time high in the canopy and is becoming familiar with a larger area of forest around the station that may well become her home range.
Temara has already demonstrated that even if an orang-utan has never experienced life in the wild, if mentally and socially healthy, they should possess the skills, curiosity and intelligence to adapt to wild living with the appropriate support.
3 January 2007
News from Kylie Bullo:
Week Seven Update
Another week has gone by at Bukit Tigapuluh National Park observing Temara and she continues to do very well and develop new skills. Week 7 proved to be a rather social week for Temara, with numerous orang-utans moving through the area that she has set up as her territory for the past week. Orang-utans that Temara has encountered have included an adolescent female named Leta, a juvenile male named Jenggo (who is followed daily by a tracker), Putri and her infant Paul and an unknown juvenile male who was released last year. Temara actually behaved herself very well and didn’t attack any of them which I was quite relieved about, however, Temara has definitely proven herself to be dominant to all of the orang-utans that she has encountered. This isn’t surprising considering Temara’s strong personality as well as her large size compared to most of the other released orang-utans here at BTP. It is still a concern that Putri and Temara remain so close together because there is a much greater chance of aggression between these two adult females. However, Putri mainly travels on the ground at present and it is hoped she will move away from the area that Temara is occupying in the near future.
Temara has again developed a deliberate and comfortable routine in her new nesting area, just south of a river within the mapped trail system. She has slept in a lot this week, however, there are numerous fruiting trees near her nesting trees (she again has two) so she has plenty of food to eat once she starts travelling. The main foods she is eating in this area are angal, tapus, lepang kayu and panto fruits. She continues to eat liana (a vine) stem, leaves and fruit in whatever area she is in as these are very common. As in week six, the new area that Temara is utilising is quite small and she even has a set route that she travels in whilst foraging once she leaves the nest (I can sometimes follow my own footprints). However, I am not trying to lure her away from this area at the moment as she is foraging well and she is smart enough to move on once the fruit sources have been used up or she is bored.
New Year’s Eve saw a change in routine for me as Martina terSteeg, the other main Sumatran Orang-utan keeper at Perth Zoo arrived at BTP. Martina will be doing some Australian Orangutan Project work with Peter Pratje (Director of project at BTP) and of course will spend some time observing Temara with me. Temara obviously had a good sleep on New Year’s Eve because she left her nest at 5.40am on New Year’s Day – the earliest time she has ever been awake. Martina soon found out that Temara hadn’t changed a bit when she had a tantrum at us and shook overhead branches and vines when we offered her some food. Martina has been impressed by Temara’s skills in the forest and thinks she is in great physical condition despite having lost some weight. It was reassuring to get Martina’s opinion about Temara because she hasn’t seen her for a while. It can sometimes be difficult to assess any changes in an animal or person when you see them everyday.
Week seven has also proven to be very wet! During periods of heavy rain, Temara will usually stay in her nest or take cover under a dense tree canopy. However, she will travel and forage in light rain. After a heavy downpour of rain, Temara will emerge looking almost dry, but with slightly frizzy hair. I emerge soaking wet and with extremely frizzy hair. Temara almost never goes to the ground now. In the first few weeks she would often run along the ground to get to new areas, however, this was often initiated by a bee attack. In the last few weeks, Temara has come to the ground on very few occasions and it is only for a few seconds to get to a different tree. This is fantastic as some other orang-utans that are released at BTP spend quite a lot of time on the ground and have to be encouraged to climb.
Finally, I am starting to reduce the amount of time I spend in the jungle watching Temara as I leave BTP on the 13 January. I want Temara to become accustomed to me not being there all the time so it is not a sudden change when I return to Perth. This has been difficult to do as I know I have so little time left with her but it has to be done for her benefit. Going by the fact that she tried to hit me after I gave her some food last night I don’t think she will be terribly upset at all when I leave, which of course is a good thing!
27 December 2006
News from Kylie Bullo:
Week Six Update
Week Six for Temara has actually proven to be quite boring! Like most people back home in Australia who are lazing about and eating too much food on the couch during the Christmas festivities, Temara also seemed to enjoy the holiday season by relaxing and not doing much at all.
Temara has been in the same area for over a week. It has been a bit tricky actually because there is an adult female named ‘Puteri’ and her infant nearby and we don’t want Temara to come into contact with her. We also don’t really want Temara moving north over a river or too far west as that is close to a deep ravine. Moving South is our preferred option, however, after numerous attempts to coax Temara in this direction she turns back and goes to one of her favourite nesting trees. Despite this being a bit frustrating as we want her to move, it is also a positive sign as she is choosing not to follow the trackers (including myself) for food treats such as corn and egg. Instead, she returns to her preferred nesting area and feeds on wild fruits including liana, tapus and kapialan. This is great as it shows that she is not overly hungry despite the fact that she has lost some weight. It highlights that she is a strong willed orang-utan and that she will not move to a new area if she doesn’t want to. On one day we were quite strict with her food and I told Herman that if she didn’t follow us between 3-4.30pm to receive her pm feed then we wouldn’t give it to her. After Temara threw numerous tantrums at us, Herman came up with the mantra, ‘Tidak jalan, tidak makan!’ which literally means, ‘Don’t move, don’t eat!’ Temara chose to ignore the warning and went and found her own food.
Despite the fact that Temara has not travelled much at all in the last week, there have still been some very interesting behaviours to observe. The trackers can only sit in a very restricted area to observe Temara properly at the moment because there is thick undergrowth and swampy areas all around her nesting trees. The area that we sit in is about 20m away from Temara’s large nesting tree. Over the last four days Temara has decided to make this her new toilet area. She will travel down from her nest 25m up in a huge tree, make her way through the canopy to above where we all sit and then proceed to urinate and defecate. We have now attempted to set up a new little camp site because of the smell. On the plus side, it is now easy to note if she has defecated and also easy to collect a faecal sample!
Temara has also been extremely entertaining when it comes to her nest building. Her construction skills are impressive. The nest she is currently in is absolutely huge. Its actually been quite wet over the past week and Temara now seems to be collecting a lot of the new nesting material from the canopy underneath her nest as if to keep the upper canopy more in tact for extra rain protection. She also has a smaller nesting tree above where the trackers sit. On Christmas Eve, she proceeded to take out half of the nesting material from a smaller nest and travelled back to a larger nesting tree about 20m away whilst breaking off more branches along the way. By the time she arrived back at her large nest, she was carrying about 17kg of branches on her shoulder to add to her nest. The strange thing was though in the early evening she took most of this new nesting material back to the smaller nest and slept there for the night. Since then she has travelled between the two nests during the day, often transferring nesting material with her. This is very amusing to watch and other trackers have even visited us and have a good laugh when they see Temara ‘moving house.’ Also, the start of the real wet weather has seen the demise of the dreaded bees. Temara has not been attacked by bees in about two weeks so her stress levels (and mine) have definitely been reduced.
I have also come to observe a healthy respect between Temara and her two main trackers, Herman and Perihsal. They do think she is lazy but some of the things she does impresses them and makes them laugh so this is great. I know she’s done well in their eyes when they say ‘Bagus Temara Bagus’ which means ‘Excellent’ in Indonesian. I feel like a proud mum when she pleases them. The different trackers will often compare the orang-utans they are monitoring and how they are going. When I ask the other trackers how Puteri is going they often tell me she is on the ground and not making a proper night nest. I shake my head in disappointment and then say that Temara never comes to the ground and makes massive nests over 20m up in a tree (I’m so competitive). However, then they all have a good laugh because Temara has been at ‘Trail Z 100’ for the past week but you can’t have it all I guess! Temara is also a lot more relaxed around the trackers now and will sometimes just sit above them at 4.15pm as if to say: ‘Are you going to give me any food now?’ This is a positive sign because if they lost track of Temara in the future, it hopefully means that Temara will approach them if she is hungry while they are out looking for her. However, for the majority of the day Temara totally ignores us and travels and forages as if we are not there which is what we want.
Week 6 ended (27/12/06) with Temara finally moving away from her nesting site of the past week at 4pm — Temara always decides to do something exciting when most other orang-utans are going to sleep. She moved north and is only about 10m away from the river. She ate numerous new fruits whilst travelling so that was very positive. So Week 7 may prove to be wet and exhausting as it is quite rough and hilly terrain on the north side of the river. They call this place Bukit Tigapuluh (Thirty Hills) National Park for a good reason!
20 December 2006
News from Kylie Bullo:
Week 5 Update
Week 5 has been a successful and quite stress-free week in the jungle at Bukit Tigapuluh. On Days 29 and 30 of her release, Temara was still in the same place she had been nesting at for a few days. She had developed quite a lazy routine because her nest was close to numerous fruiting trees including a large fruit called ‘kerdongdon’ (Apparently it is called that because it makes that noise when it falls on your head however I don’t know if the trackers are teasing me). For five days Temara basically left her nest, travelled to the fruiting trees, gathered some food and returned to the nest to eat her supplies. She also used the same nest to sleep in for numerous nights in a row and simply added more leaves and branches to it each night. When wild orang-utans find a rich food supply they can often stay there for weeks at a time so this is not an unusual behaviour. However, I want Temara to explore as much of the trail system around the station area during the fruiting season so she can experience different terrain, possibly meet other orang-utans, and most importantly, discover new food sources.
Therefore, on Day 31 of her release it was time for Temara to move suburbs. Her tracker and I led her with food treats about 350m west, down an old logging road. I then wanted to lure her south, however, Temara decided she preferred the real estate in the north-east so she ran back the way we came for about 50m and then headed north. It proved to be a successful afternoon because Temara fed on numerous new fruits including two quite large fruits, about the size of a small apple. I wish I had taken my camera with me because her mouth was so full of the fruits that she could barely chew. Temara also found that these fruits were the perfect-sized missile to launch at her unsuspecting trackers. Let me just say that she has very good aim!
Temara stayed in this area from 16 December–20 December. On the 17 and 18 of December she slept in the Taj Mahal of orang-utan nests. It took over an hour to construct (with breaks in between building) and it must have contained half the canopy of the tree she was in. She finished making it when it was quite dark so I couldn’t see it properly. When I returned in the morning I saw how huge and magnificent it was. My next thought was ‘Oh no, she’ll never move out!’ By the 19 December she was only 20m away from a large river. I didn’t want her to cross this as we would then soon be out of the trail system where it is much more difficult terrain to follow an orang-utan. We tried to lure her away from the river but after coaxing her about 40m up a particular trail, she ran back and entered the forest at exactly the right point to get back to her large nesting tree from two nights ago. Despite being frustrated that I couldn’t lead Temara to where I wanted her to go, I am very impressed with her orientation skills as she becomes familiar with an area very quickly. Once back in her mammoth nest, she spent the afternoon climbing into a neighbouring small tree and feeding on a small red fruit called ‘kapialan’. She would also break small branches off this tree that had fruit on it, climb 25m back up to her nest and eat in bed.
Temara is now also getting a set daily ration of food from the trackers every day. It had been difficult to assess how much forest fruit Temara was actually eating and, therefore, how much supplement food to offer her. After consulting with Perth Zoo vets, a daily food ration was decided upon. Temara is to be offered 20% of her daily requirement (i.e. offered approximately 380kcal, daily requirement being 1900kcal) from the trackers. Temara will be receiving approximately 20% of her requirement (380kcal) in supplements if she receives the following items daily:
- 65 kcal in fleshy fruit: 2 mandarins OR 1 mango OR 250g eggplant
- 33 kcal of gourd: 220g cucumber
- 76 kcal of root/tuber: 90g potato OR 90g sweet potato
- 150 kcal protein/carbohydrate: 2 eggs OR 115g rice
- 55 kcal of enrichment: 1 banana OR 65g sweet corn
Total 379 kcals
Temara’s feeding regime can be adjusted over time depending on her foraging habits and energy levels. In the next couple of weeks I would like to remove one or two of the feeding days so she does not always expect food at the end of the day and has more incentive to forage for forest fruits.
Therefore, in summary, Week 5 has been a very positive one for Temara. She continues to slowly explore new areas and is exploiting more food sources. She is also tending to often use a night nest for more than one night in a row if there are good food sources close by. Temara has usually settled for the night by 5.30pm when it is still quite light, however, myself and the trackers remain under her nesting tree until 6.30pm in case she moves.
16 December 2006
News from Kylie Bullo:
Week 4 Update
Temara actually spent most of the fourth week of her release without me. I think I definitely found it harder to be away from her than she did me but of course that is a good thing since I will only be at Bukit Tigapuluh National Park until mid January. Days 22 and 23 of Temara’s release saw her behave more like a ‘wild’ orangutan. She rose early on both mornings, had a midday rest and had made a night nest by 5.30pm. Temara’s travelling and foraging also increased which was very positive.
One obvious facet of Temara’s development was her increase in skill when transferring to new trees, especially using vines and transferring between smaller trees. Her transfers were also becoming more daring and I have suffered numerous minor heart seizures whilst watching her. However, not a day goes by when I don’t sit there and smile as Temara travels through the canopy. The choices she can make about where to go, at what height, what speed etc are endless. One of the most interesting things to observe is how Temara will test various pathways and assess whether it is safe to use that particular vine or fragile branch by pulling on it and testing her weight on it before letting go of her original hold. However, like all orang-utans, Temara has suffered the odd fall. One rainy afternoon, she was in a small tree, snapping off branches. The next minute, Temara snapped one too many branches and she plummeted 5m to the ground. My heart literally stopped and I stood there frozen with my eyes half-shut as if watching a B-grade horror movie. The two trackers cracked up laughing and then Temara’s head popped up from behind a shrub. She looked embarrassed more than anything and quickly ran to the nearest tree and climbed up. After seeing she was OK, I turned around and had a little smirk myself.
I was to leave for Jambi city on early Sunday afternoon, 10 December. At this time, Temara was about 1km NE of the station so I made the trek to say goodbye to her on Sunday morning. Temara returned the favour by sleeping for the two hours I was there and not even coming down for food; at least she wasn’t overly hungry! The journey to Jambi was an eventful one! I was in the back of a dirty, smelly jeep with another passenger, 6 bags and an orang-utan in a crate. Nine hours later I was dropped off at my hotel wearing absolutely filthy clothes and was stared at by everyone in the foyer. It was difficult to be away from Temara but I must admit I did enjoy being in a comfy bed and not sharing my room with mosquitoes, spiders and things that go bump in the night.
I arrived back at Bukit Tigapuluh National Park on Thursday 14 December at 11.58pm. It would have been earlier if we hadn’t been stuck behind huge trucks carrying palm oil of all things. It was raining and we had to change vehicles. And just when we were only 10 minutes away from the station, outside the local school, we of course stopped to make the obligatory midnight furniture delivery to one of the locals! Little did I know that the tarpaulin on the back of our truck had a bookshelf under it. Silly me thought it was orang-utan food. So at 11.30pm, in the rain, we unloaded furniture into a house!
Upon arrival at the station I was relieved to find out that Temara was doing very well. She had not moved far from when I left for Jambi, however, she had been eating a lot more forest fruits, was waking up earlier and nesting by 5pm! I went out at 9am today and spent the day with her and she looks great. However, she did seem to think that with my return that I might come bearing gifts because from 4-5pm she kept climbing down quite low and looking at me and my bag. When I said, ‘Tidak, makan buah hutan!’ meaning ‘No, eat forest fruit’, she became quite offended, shook some vines and threw a small branch at me. It’s good to be back in the jungle!
6 December 2006
News from Kylie Bullo:
Week 3 Update
Well, up until and including Day 19 of Temara’s release, things had been quite uneventful. It seemed to be a ‘Consolidation Week’ where she built on her knowledge of travelling, foraging, interacting with other orangutans and becoming familiar with her surroundings.
Temara appears to be quite fussy with some of the forest fruits, even with types that all of the other orangutans really like. She won’t stay in any one fruit tree for any length of time; she will browse a bit and then move on as if looking for something better. I’ve done various things to try and combat this including eating the fruits myself in front of her. I’ve felt like one of those parents trying to convince their suspicious toddler that mashed pumpkin with peas really does taste good! I put the fruit in my mouth, chew it, make ‘Mmmmm yummy’ noises and then swallow it… despite the fact it is foul, bitter and making my eyes water. However like most suspecting toddlers, she isn’t fooled.
On a more positive note Temara has been travelling more and has even started moving away from her nest by mid-morning which is early for Temara. Up until Day 20 she had stayed in rather a small area but is becoming more familiar with the terrain and definitely knows her way back to certain trails and trees. She went back to the release station cage after six days away exploring. She decided to assert some authority while she was there and had a scuffle with an adult female named Puteri (same name as Temara’s mother at Perth Zoo). This female has an infant named Paul and can be quite aggressive. After Temara’s second visit to the release station cage, poor Puteri was hiding in her transport crate in the cage. The tracker and I had to yell at Temara to climb the large tree near the cage when she was showing aggression to Puteri. Temara then banged her fist on the tin roof five times and proceeded to try and rip the tin sheeting off the roof.
Temara also had some very late nights during the third week and has been building nests after 7pm. I was getting a bit agitated with her because it’s so hard for us to keep sight of her in the near dark. Also, I had missed lunch, was starving and wanted to go to bed—priorities, I know! I think her late nights have been mainly due to the fact that the sky is quite light because of the near full moon. For two nights in a row, her tracker and I had to be very strict with her and yell ‘Naik’ when it appeared she may come to the ground to go to a new tree. At one point we had to bang on the tree and shake vines. Well, two can play at that game. Temara broke off a massive branch and threw it at the tracker and then raced down the vine to wallop me on the back.
Then along came Day 20 of her release. I was expecting it to be quite a boring day because Temara had slept in the huge tree next to the cage complex and I was thinking she may not even leave that area at all. But, of course, Temara did what I had been dreading she’d do—and that was bolt! Now this was due to BEES. Yet again. She was badly attacked by bees, went to ground and started running north. Her tracker, Perihsal and I were trying to block the way north because about 60m up is a huge ravine. When she was first released, the goal was never to let Temara near this ravine or we would certainly lose track of her if she went down it. However, there’s not much you can do to stop an orang-utan moving in the direction it wants to go when it’s stressed and being stung by bees. The tracker and I, when following Temara down the ravine, were also savaged by bees. I received at least 15 stings, including on my face, head, back, hands and fingers. It really was horrible. We both had to dive into the river that was at the bottom of the ravine to try and escape the bees whilst still trying to watch where Temara went. I don’t how we still managed to keep up with her whilst climbing up a cliff face, half-blinded by bee stings. Perihsal, her tracker was amazing. After the chase had gone on for more than half an hour, I couldn’t even see Temara. I was just barely keeping sight of Perihsal and put my trust in the fact that he wouldn’t lose Temara. Finally, Temara stopped running and just lay on the ground in exhaustion. Perihsal and I also collapsed and we all just lay there recovering for 30 minutes. I was so upset for Temara because the bees just wouldn’t leave her alone. I started to have a bit of a cry. I felt so bad for Temara and from the pain of all the bee stings. But I couldn’t have a proper sook because my face and head were swollen from the stings so it would have hurt more to cry.
By about 4pm Temara had settled down so we started to lead her back to the station area. It seemed to take ages but she was so good and followed really well along the track. Leif left me some of his leftover food so Temara had a trail of muesli bar to get her away from the ravine area. Thankfully, Temara then climbed a tree when we were about 60m north of the station kitchen area and ate fruit in her nesting tree from 6-6.40pm so that was a great end to a very stressful day.
Today was another interesting day. I headed back to camp at 1.30pm because I was feeling really sick. I thought, “Well, she’s got two trackers with her today, I might have my first few hours off in 5 weeks.” Of course that didn’t happen. Temara was on the move again at 3pm and again travelled quite far so the trackers called me on radio to come out. However, she is still within the trail system and is well east of the ravine.
So despite yesterday being a bad day, it is brilliant that we still have Temara in our sights and I’m very relieved. Of course it highlights the fact that we could lose track of her if something like that happens again. However, she has already shown so many positive signs of being able to live in the forest that I would still be confident of her success if we were to lose track of her in difficult terrain.
Well that’s enough excitement for me for the week. I hope the next few days are a bit more relaxed and next week’s report is far more boring for you all.
Kylie
29 November 2006
Temara has now been in the rainforest for 14 days. Today, she got out of bed (her overnight nest) at 9.26am and started travelling immediately. She found numerous fruits during the day, wild banana leaves and even ate a waxy, discarded hornets/bees nest that she found on the ground. She also came across her first river. Temara was intrigued and very curious. She crossed the river using vines and then climbed down so she could scoop water to drink.
At 4pm the trackers and Temara came upon some more bees. Temara was running away from the bees very quickly along the ground through very rough terrain so it was difficult to keep up with her.
It was a great day and to top it all off, Temara made a fabulous nest at 5.40pm and was settled by 6pm.
At the end of the second week, Temara is doing very well. She can travel well though the canopy, testing the strength of vines etc to ensure they will hold her weight. Temara can find her own fruit, leaves and hornets’ nests to eat. She interacts with other young orang-utans in the area and does not run away in fear. She can also can obtain water from tree hollows, swamps and rivers, and cross rivers without getting wet (using vines). She can also make excellent night nests, even in the dark.
23 November 2006
The end of Temara’s first week in the wild. To sum up her week, Temara has gone very well. She can move well through the trees, she has found food and water and is making great night nests. She has not travelled as much in the last couple of days, however, we have to take into account that this is the most exercise she would have done in a very long time and her body will still be adjusting.
Picture courtesy of the Today Tonight program.
18 November 2006
Kylie and the two trackers were in the forest by 5.30am to follow Temara after she woke up at 6am from her self-made nest in the forest. After travelling for an hour, Temara came upon something new—a swarm of bees. Temara become very agitated and didn’t move away quickly enough. Eventually she came to the ground and started running. She crossed a massive swamp with Kylie and the trackers following behind.
In the afternoon, Temara found some fruits on a liana vine and also drank from a wild hollow, which is another wild behaviour. She also built a fantastic night nest before it got dark and was settled in by 6pm. On previous nights, Temara has been building nests in the dark.
Picture courtesy of the Today Tonight program.
16 November 2006
With her two week quarantine period complete, this morning Temara’s enclosure door was opened. Barely hesitating, Temara left the quarantine cage and went straight up the nearest tree. She transfers between trees like she has been doing it all her life. She is coming down for food from us but is also eating a lot of forest fruit. She was feeding all the way up until dark and then made a quick night nest 20m up a tree.
Pictures courtesy of the Today Tonight program.
15 November 2006
Temara's quarantine is now over. She is going well and is taking food from her Indonesian trackers. She also continues to try a wide variety of forest foods and has had contact with another small female orang-utan.
Tomorrow morning, Temara’s enclosure door will be opened. A rubber rope has been placed from her door to the nearest tree so she can venture out in to the forest.
8 November 2006
Temara was introduced to her two official Indonesian trackers. Their names are Perihsal and Herman. Temara hand fed and took fluids from one of the trackers in the afternoon. This was first done by Kylie giving treats to Temara and coaxing her over. Kylie then gave two small pieces of licorice to Herman who held them out to Temara. Temara took the treats cautiously but quite gently with her index and third finger. Herman then gave Temara a drink from a bottle. She was a bit nervous but still came over to get the drink.
The session was kept short at 5 minutes and was excellent as it is the first time that Herman has interacted with Temara. This kind of interaction will continue daily on a rotating basis with Temara’s two main trackers until her release. This will familiarise Temara with Herman and Pahnizol, making her less wary of them when they follow her in the forest. Hopefully she will become confident enough to take food off them if she needs to. Herman was wearing a Perth Zoo cap. When they are following Temara in the forest they will also have green Perth Zoo shirts on so this will also be familiar to Temara.
6 November 2006
Temara was introduced to two other orang-utans—Roberta and Mona.
4 November 2006
Temara was introduced to a young male orang-utan called Rocky. The purpose of exposing Temara to other orang-utans is to improve her socialisation skills for when she comes across them in the forest.
Leif and Kylie went into the forest in search of fruit. They collected three types—ficus (small round orange berries), kerdondong (bigger, round orange fruit) and cupak (oval green fruit with hard outer covering but soft, orange, bitter fruit inside).
3 November 2006
Temara’s second night in quarantine. She has been given native leaves. She folded and arranged these leaves to make a nest to sleep in, just like a wild orang-utan.
Kylie released a sub-adult male into the forest today. It was a good experience leading up to Temara's release, as Kylie was able to learn the tracks and get some practice finding her way home with the GPS.
2 November 2006
Kylie and Leif arrive safely at Bukit Tigapuluh. Temara was released into her quarantine enclosure and was given her first look at the rainforest, leaf monkeys and hornbills.
1 November 2006
Temara arrived safely in Jakarta. At an official welcoming ceremony at Jakarta Airport, Perth Zoo CEO Susan Hunt, Exotics Curator Leif Cocks and Head Orang-utan Keeper Kylie Bullo were warmly greeted by Indonesian officials and a contingent of around 50 members of the media.
Soon after arriving in Jakarta, Leif, Kylie and Temara left for Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.