Temon, a 3-year-old female orangutan, and Lahei, a 4-year-old male, are skilled and independent explorers from the large Forest School group at the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Centre. Temon and Lahei don’t socialise much with the other orangutans in their group, but stay close to each other and spend a lot of time together.
These intelligent, brave youngsters spend the majority of their time exploring the forest and foraging for natural foods. Temon and Lahei often become so engaged in their games and adventures that they will build nests in the trees and sleep overnight in the forest. According to our surrogate mothers, when the two stay overnight in Forest School, they usually return to their enclosure the next day.
However, one day, Lahei hadn’t returned by the time Forest School ended in the afternoon, and he couldn’t be found in his usual nesting spot. In a panic, our surrogate mothers, assisted by our technicians, went in search of him. Two days following Lahei’s disappearance, Temon also went missing! Daily searches were conducted to try and locate this adventurous duo, but they could not be found.
Then, about ten days after Lahei first went missing, a surrogate mother was preparing to return to the complex with the large group in the evening when she noticed branches moving in the trees. She thought it might be a young orangutan left behind, but every orangutan in the large group had been accounted for, minus Temon and Lahei. Upon closer inspection, the movement in the trees turned out to be from Temon and Lahei!
Both orangutans appeared to be moving slowly and hesitantly. When a surrogate mother attempted to lure them with fruit, Temon approached and took the offering without hesitation. The surrogate mother immediately took Temon’s hand. Meanwhile, Lahei required extra effort to coax: The surrogate mother had to chase him around for a while to capture him. Lahei was eventually caught when his attention was diverted by fruit thrown in another direction. At that moment, the surrogate mother approached Lahei from behind, picked him up, and carried him back to the enclosure. The two orangutans were eventually sentenced to spend the day in a sleeping complex and not allowed to attend the Forest School.
After several days of tension due to the escapades of these two Forest School students, the surrogate mothers felt relieved to see Temon and Lahei back with their peers. Ibu Sri, our surrogate mother coordinator, expressed her joy at the two orangutans being located and safely returned to the rehabilitation centre.
Temon and Lahei are still very young and not quite ready to survive in the wild on their own. Despite their intelligence and growing signs of independence, they are still too young and inexperienced for release. These skilled explorers have certainly challenged our surrogate mothers of late!
Text by: Communications Team at Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan
Will you help us rescue, rehabilitate and release orangutans back to freedom? Thank you!
