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.
This January the BOS Foundation and RHOI was fortunate enough to be able to yet again save another orangutan from being harmed and translocate him to a safe area of forest.
On January 3rd 2015, a collaborative team from the BOS Foundation and Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia (RHOI) (Tyo, Vet. Dermawan Saputra, Angga F, Arif, Imam, Agus and Musa) succeeded in rescuing and translocating a young male orangutan from the Nehas Liah Bing Village in Muara Wahau Subdistrict, East Kalimantan where the local community had spotted a young male orangutan damaging their crops and thankfully reported this to the authorities.
It took a full week of thorough searching of the indigeneous forest in the area to find him and 2.5 hours to rescue him. He seemed to be healthy, but little underweight and suffering from slight malnutrition.
A village elder of Nehas Liah Bing, Ledjie Taq named the orangutan Waang Laas after one of their ancestors.
Waang Laas is Back in his Forest Home (Photo credit: Eko Prasetyo)
Waang Laas is Back in his Forest Home (Photo credit: Eko Prasetyo)
Waang Laas is Back in his Forest Home (Photo credit: Eko Prasetyo)
Waang Laas is Back in his Forest Home (Photo credit: Jatim)
Waang Laas is Back in his Forest Home (Photo credit: Angga F)
After being sedated by our Vet, Dermawan Saputra, Waang Laas was taken to the Wehea indigeneous forest.
The moment the cage was opened, Waang Laas went straight towards a tree, climb up and built a nest.
Today, Waang Laas is back in his forest home forest living the free life he deserves.
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.
