Masarang HK Society Limited 青山綠水協會有限公司

Seasons Greetings from the heart of Borneo where we continued our five year tradition to provide all orangutans in Sintang as well as the staff with an end of year treat. We can assure you that the staff loved durian as much as our orangutans do. On the left in this happy baby group is Annette and the right is Piet. In the middle is a still unnamed orphan waiting for an adopter. We should not have to rescue all these orphans but we will do what we can for them as long as we are needed. Thank you to our supporters that enable us to help the orangutans, their forest habitat and the local people living near their forest home.

As of October 2023, Piet, the young male orangutan rescued from an owner, is making progress in his new environment at the Sintang Quarantine Center. Piet, estimated to be around 1 year old, arrived at the center on September 29, 2023, after being rescued. The rescue operation was carried out by the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in collaboration with the Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC). This operation was initiated based on a report from a concerned resident from Nanga Raya Hamlet, Nanga Raya Village, Belimbing Hulu Subdistrict, Melawi Regency.

Previously, the orangutan was found by the owner in the protected forest area, Sungai Beluai. The orangutan was abandoned on the forest floor without a mother, attracting the attention of the owner, who was gathering wood and hunting in the area. The orangutan, later named Rayo, was estimated to be around 1 year old but was in very poor physical condition, suffering from malnutrition and diseases such as worms and flu.

Rayo’s owner had kept him since April 2023, providing inadequate nutrition in the form of rice, rice water, sweetened condensed milk, and occasional watermelon, which did not meet his nutritional needs. The orangutan was kept in a small bamboo cage, measuring approximately 1 x 1 x 1 m, resembling a chicken coop. The owner’s motivation for keeping Rayo was solely because the orangutan was abandoned without a mother to care for him.

Upon receiving information and an appeal regarding the protection of wild animals and the laws governing their protection, the owner, with the help of other locals, reported the finding to the authorities. This rescue action was a crucial step in supporting wildlife conservation, especially for orangutans, and aimed to raise awareness about environmental and wildlife protection within society.

Currently, at the Sintang Quarantine Center, Rayo, now known as Piet, shares his living space with two other recently rescued baby orangutans, Annette and Junet, both female. Despite being in close proximity, Piet continues to display a solitary temperament, showing little interest in interacting with the other babies and often spends his time on top of the canopy of octagonal cage. On September 10, 2023, Piet, along with Annette and Junet, transitioned to octagonal cages, allowing them to acclimate to a more spacious and enriched environment. Annette, in contrast, shows a keen interest in interacting with Piet, often following him around and attempting to engage, while Piet remains indifferent, allowing her to initiate interactions as she pleases.

Piet’s condition today is slowly getting better, thanks to the dedicated staff at the Sintang Quarantine Center. The staff provides Piet with various nutrients and vitamins to boost his recovery. Additionally, deworming treatments have been administered to Piet to address his worm infestation, aiding in his overall health and well-being. Piet’s journey at the Sintang Quarantine Center continues under the care and guidance of the staff, with ongoing efforts to monitor and understand his behavior, providing the necessary support for his rehabilitation and eventual hopeful return to the wild.

Pictures – Our team rescuing Piet

Pictures – Piet in octagonal cage along with his new friends

A day to stand still for a moment and reflect on our intelligent fellow primates that are still facing such an aggregate of threats to their survival in the wild. We all know the depressive statistics on habitat loss, fragmentation of their remaining jungle areas, continued hunting, poaching and smuggling and now, just starting, what promises to be the worst El Nino in human history… No number of soccer fields per minute disappearing or percentages decrease in remaining number of orangutans can express the seriousness of what every single one of them is facing. I saw mothers starving and dying while trying to hang on to life in degraded forests. And flying extremely low over the Mangkutup river in the Central Kalimantan burning peat swamps, in thick smoke by helicopter, I saw the flames consuming the last trees on the river edge burning and a huge cheekpadder orangutan in a burning tree dropping himself in the water to his certain death, so much like the people in Hawaii that had no place to outrun the fires.

It is a terrible thought that the survivors of those terrible 1997/1998 fires and equally disastrous fires of 2015/2016 will now, just like the local people, again hardly be able to breath and escape the flames. We will need to anticipate many new rescues. Odom, whom I entrusted setting up the BOSF Nyaru Menteng center near Palangkaraya in 1998 was out in the field for months during 2015/2016 and in that period he and his team tracked, captured and relocated 89 adult orangutans from the peat swamp fires. We have no idea how many more perished. This picture of Odom in action tells more than pages of text can.

As always we will do our utmost to save as many orangutans as we can but the fight cannot be won on the local level alone. We need to deal with international wildlife smuggling and global climate change as a result of human activities. It needs to be a global effort. Perhaps this year’s super El Nino will be the shocking wakeup call we badly need to jump into real action? Honestly, I don’t know, but what I do know is that giving up is not an option!

Willie Smits