What made you specifically interested in orangutans?
Orangutans are fascinating, gentle animals with a calming presence about them. They are highly intelligent – in fact, their intelligence is comparable to that of a five or six-year-old child.
What is the most endearing quality of orangutans?
Orangutans exhibit many emotions including empathy. The females are wonderfully devoted mothers and provide around-the-clock care to their offspring for up to eight years.
What is your most memorable experience of orangutans?
The release of Temara, a 14-year-old female Sumatran orangutan born and bred at Perth Zoo, into the wild in Sumatra in 2006 as part of an orangutan reintroduction program. This was a world first and I spent three months with Temara in the jungle after her release. I have also seen three orangutan babies born at Perth Zoo which was truly an amazing experience.
Why are you inspired by your job?
Working with these incredible animals every day inspires me to spend every minute of my spare time to try and save them from extinction, which is likely in the next 10 years for Sumatran Orangutans and soon after for Bornean Orangutans. We need to recognise the massive amount of suffering being inflicted through habitat destruction and poaching on a species that is 97% genetically identical to humans.
How long have you been in nature conservation?
I started volunteering at Kanyana Native Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in 1995. Once I started working at Perth Zoo in 1999, my focus turned to primate conservation and a year later I joined the Australian Orangutan Project Committee. As this NGO’s Conservation Projects Manager, I often travel to Indonesia to assist with orangutan conservation projects.
Why are NGOs so important?
The main contribution that NGOs make is financially supporting conservation projects of which the most effective is probably habitat protection. They of course also help create an awareness of general conservation issues; however, with so many species critically endangered, they need to be saved NOW. The point is, there is no going back once something is extinct.
Why, in your view, is Perth Zoo’s job so important?
Perth Zoo does a great job educating the public about endangered species and how to help. I think the Zoo’s targeted campaigns such as Don’t Palm Us Off and Wipe for Wildlife are effective ways of reaching the public and giving them something tangible to do themselves.
How does working for Perth Zoo help you achieve your own conservation aims?
As Senior Orangutan Keeper at Perth Zoo, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Sumatra numerous times. This allows me to stay in touch with what is happening in the field and contribute to the Sumatran Orangutan rehabilitation and release program which the Zoo supports.
Along with donating to or fundraising for Perth Zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Action fund, what can individuals do to help the nature conservation cause?
They can donate their time to NGOs, such as the Australian Orangutan Project (AOP), to help conservation causes. Often people with specific skills in say media or administration are desperately needed as volunteers.
How can individuals get involved?
Do things at home to help – recycle things, buy recycled products, walk more than using your car, eat less red meat. Every little bit helps.
If you had one wish, what would it be?
For humans to think more about their actions. There are six billion of us on this planet and we are living in an unsustainable way. I don’t think we have the right to prevent other species from living here as well.
Photos courtesy of Phil England and Kylie.
