ARE ORANGUTANS EMPATHETIC?
It was a usual day at the Nyaru Menteng forest school, where young orangutans were learning from one another while their human surrogate mothers looked on from below.
Since last January 2015, the BOS Foundation has been preparing an area in Southern Kehje Sewen Forest as an orangutan release area. There were a lot we had done in preparing this new release point. In the end of last May, Guswan, Jafar, Kensing, Agus, Usup, and Rusda went for a phenology survey in the south area.
We started from Camp Lesik and off to Pelangsiran, a small transit village in the edge of Kehje Sewen Forest. At Pelangsiran, we spent a night for a gear check and preparation on necessities to bring to our phenology camp in south area.
The folowing day, the phenology team departed from Pelangsiran to the Southern Kehje Sewen Forest. Uphill and slppery track, steep cliff, carrying bags full of electronic equipments and logistics are tough challenges we were facing. Especially for the first-timer members of the team without previous experience going into southern phenology survey. But we encouraged each other, and we managed to overcome all the challenges above.
Once we arrived at the phenology camp, the team quickly set up all the gears: sleeping bags, cooking equipments, and the stuff needed for the survey itself. The team also needed to repair the flying camp’s tarp and put on extra wooden support for comfort. The team spent the first day to get some more rest while making preparations and plans for a smooth survey. Unfortunate for the team, there were bees flying around the camp they had to be very careful not to get stung.
Phenology in Southern Kehje Sewen (Photo credit: Jafar)
Phenology in Southern Kehje Sewen (Photo credit: Jafar)
Phenology in Southern Kehje Sewen (Photo credit: Jafar)
Phenology in Southern Kehje Sewen (Photo credit: Rusda)
The phenology team was split into two, the first one consists of Agus, Jafar, and Kensing, responsible for doing phenology survey in 2 transects. While Rusda, Usup, and Guswan stayed in the camp to look after the logistics and all the electronic equipments. The following day, the team took turns, except for Agus who still accompanied the second team to teach them how to take notes and identify species of plants they find during the survey. On the third day, the phenology survey focused on extending a-300 meter transect and inventoried the trees along the newly made transect.
In general, this phenology survey went smooth and we found out that some plants have born fruit in this area, among them are Ficus racemosa, Flacourtia sp., and Polyathia sumatrana.
Heavy rain poured down occasionally within the three days of our phenology survey in Southern Kehje Sewen, making the tracks slippery and dangerous. But we overcome that all together, because that’s what teamwork is supposed to do!
Keep your heads up high, team!
It was a usual day at the Nyaru Menteng forest school, where young orangutans were learning from one another while their human surrogate mothers looked on from below.
Our Post-Release Monitoring (PRM) team at Camp Himba Pambelum in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park (TNBBBR), Central Kalimantan, encountered Suci, a young female orangutan, three times back in 2023.
Kopral has been receiving treatment at the clinic since April 2023 due to wounds on the sole of his right foot and fungus between his toes.
