A MORE INDEPENDENT SAYANG

A few days ago, in the early afternoon, we spotted movements in the top of a tree near Camp Lesik. As we approached, we found that it was Yayang’s daughter, Sayang.

Seeing her busy eating fruits, we tried to locate Yayang who we expected to be somewhere nearby. However, our telemetry equipment detected no signal, which means Sayang was on her own and is making great strides at becoming an independent orangutan. Great news!

We decided to follow her. She was busy moving from tree to tree and seemed to be quite aware that we were watching. She often displayed her displeasure by throwing twigs at us and kiss-squeaking, then she quickly moved again as if in an attempt to lose us.

That day, she spent most of her time traveling through the trees and exploring Kehje Sewen. She also ate a lot of fruit and young shoots. As the day drew to a close, Sayang climbed into her nest to sleep and we headed back to Camp Lesik.

The day after, before sunrise, we departed to conduct Sayang’s first nest-to-nest observation without her mother. When we reached her nesting location, she was still asleep, so we patiently waiting and quietly ate our breakfast.
 

Not long after, Sayang woke up. She climbed out of her nest and started to quickly travel through the trees. Keeping our distance, we picked up our pace to follow her. Not long after, we heard a long call. Sayang stopped for a moment to observe her surroundings.

Sayang’s activities were similar to her activities the day before – she was keenly exploring Kehje Sewen Forest and ate plenty of forest fruits. We are very happy to witness Sayang’s independence and see that she is thriving in her true home.