Kiki the slow loris from Cilandak

At the end of May IAR's rescue team went to the house of Mr and Mrs Johan in West Cilandak, South Jakarta. The people wanted to give their slow loris to International Animal Rescue.

The slow loris had turned up in the yard of Mr Johan's house and was found hanging on the bird cage. It might have come from a nearby house.

Like most people, Mr Johan thought that the animal was a cuscus. But a week later he found out that it was in fact a slow loris which is a protected species and cannot be a pet. So then Mr Johan tried to look for a place that would accept the slow loris and he found IAR. It was a female Javan slow loris named Kiki.

While Mr Johan was taking care of Kiki, he did not know that she was a nocturnal animal. He gave her banana, carrot and papaya which isn't the slow loris' natural food. The cage where Kiki lived was also very open and let in lots of sunlight so that she couldn't sleep well during the day. Besides that, the location of the cage was near an alley with plenty of people and noises disturbing Kiki's tranquillity. These conditions made her very stressed, and by the fifth day she had started to lose her appetite.

Kiki's condition when the rescue team arrived was very sad. She was very thin with no canine teeth on her upper or lower jaw (they had been removed by force), while the other teeth were flat (it seems they had intentionally been made flat using nail clippers so that the slow loris would look like a tame animal). She was taken to IAR's rehabilitation centre in Ciapus-Bogor and, after being checked by the medical team, she was moved into a quarantine cage.

Let's hope that Kiki can live a healthier life from now on and if possible one day go back to her home in the wild.

We welcome a new slow loris to Ciapus

On 27 July we took in a Sumatran slow loris (Nycticebus Coucang) weighing 800 grams and 34 cm in length. He was handed over by someone from Bekasi Timur, Jakarta.

According to his owner, the slow loris had been purchased from a dealer in Jakarta City for Rp. 150,000. At the time the trader said he was about five months old and called Olip. The slow loris had been placed in a laundry basket of clothes but, when the team went to rescue him, they found him under a table, hiding behind a toy piano.

The owner had no idea how to take care of a slow loris, so thankfully had decided to hand him over to IAR. Apparently he had injured his left thigh, although a student who was present when he was rescued said the little animal already had the wound when he was bought from the market.

At least now Olip will receive the specialist care and food he needs and IAR’s vets can tend to his wound.

Passa, the greater slow loris: from Sumatra to Java

Five years ago Mrs Yayat came to Pulau Bengkalis, Riau, Sumatra to follow the transmigration programme. Every once in a while she came back to her hometown in Pasar Sabtu Desa Situ Udik Kecamatan Cibungbulang Bogor, Java.

One time she came back from Sumatra bringing a baby animal. It was the baby of a slow loris. As she was not staying in Java for long, the baby was then reared by her cousin. News of this baby eventually reached IAR. So on 29 May 2010 the rescue team from IAR Indonesia came to the house of Mrs Yayat's cousin.

The baby was being kept inside a small wooden box in the kitchen. For food, the owner was giving it only cucumber and banana. Because of the lack of knowledge about the nocturnal behaviour of the slow loris, the owner took it out of the box every morning.

The baby was a male greater slow loris. He had been named Passa. When the rescue team arrived Passa looked unhealthy and stressed (he is aggressive). He didn't respond even when the rescue team gave him insects.

Mrs Yayah and her cousin had no idea that the animal they were taking care of was a slow loris, they thought it was a cuscus. Also they did not know that the slow loris is a protected animal and not a pet.

At the moment Passa is in the quarantine cage at IAR's Rehabilitation Centre in Indonesia, Ciapus.

It is high time people were aware of the slow loris and realised that they are animals protected by the law.

IAR Indonesia has the biggest slow loris rehabilitation centre. Right now we are about to release four slow lorises into Batutegi Lampung, Sumatra.

Let's hope that one day Passa will also live free again in the wild.

Vet student reports on her internship experience in Indonesia

I am a last year veterinary student from Norway, and for the last three months I have volunteered at the veterinary clinic at IAR's rescue and rehabilitation centre in Ciapus, Indonesia as part of my last year medical training.

In advance I was correctly informed that this is not a clinic with state of the art, high technological equipment (although they have endoscopic equipment, x-ray machine and an inhalation anesthesia machine) or surgical activity around the clock. What intrigued me to come was to learn more about preventive and treatment medicine for primates as well as their rehabilitation and release. The centre cares for the Slow Loris (Javanese and Sumatran) and Long Tailed and Pig Tailed Macaque.

My days in the clinic consisted of helping out with the treatments of the animals in the clinic in the morning, in the afternoons we had surgeries or worked on treatment plans for some of the more chronic patients. The surgeries were often dental surgeries on the Loris, necessary because poachers cruelly clip their teeth of before trying to sell them. Another interesting procedure was the endoscopic sterilization of the female Macaques; minimal invasive and very effective. I also spent some time doing observations of the animals in the cages, especially individuals that were due to be released. During my stay I was fortunate enough to participate on a release, 12 Long Tailed Macaques and 4 Sumatran Slow Lorises were released in a protected forest area in Lampung, Sumatra. It was incredible to accompany the animals on their way back out into the wild, and very educational to follow the organization process that leads up to the release itself.

For a 10 day period I visited IAR's Orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centre in Kalimantan. It was my first encounter with Orangutans and they are truly fascinating. The centre had at the time I was there seven babies and eight adult individuals, held in separate locations. I stayed mostly in the baby school, helping the Indonesian animal carers keeping the small ones active and safe and assisting the veterinarians. The veterinary work consisted of critical care for an orphaned four month old baby, wound management and preventive measurements to prevent infections of the gastro intestinal tract. I've learned a lot about the troubles and challenges of a young rescue centre and the importance of preventive and natural medicine when working with primates.

It has been a wonderful three months, in most part accredited to the fascinating primates and all the great people that made me feel like a part of the centre.

Silje Robertsen,
Vet Student from Norway

Huta finds three's company in Ketapang

Volunteer Paloma updates us on Huta's new living arrangements at International Animal Rescue's emergency centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

Huta, the orangutan who was rescued in March, has been placed in a cage with Mona and Nicky, two orangutans of similar age. They all seem to be getting on well, particularly Huta and Mona, who will often play together, chasing each other, laughing and hugging. Thankfully their play isn't as rough as Jojo and Jingo's!

Nicky and Huta also get on, although Nicky has assumed a more dominant role, and often takes Huta's food. To make sure Huta gets her fair share, we try to feed them separately and make sure each gets enough. If things between them get too serious, Mona always steps in, playing the big sister role.

A similar thing has happened with enrichment, with Nicky, and sometimes Mona, trying to take Huta's share of the enrichment we give them all. Again, IAR keepers always put extra enrichment in the cage, to make sure Huta isn't left out.

Despite these small problems, all three orangutans seem to love being together, and Huta is clearly much happier having some sisterly company!

Some of our primates start the journey back to freedom

Nicky, our centre manager in Ciapus, updates us on the latest release of macaques and slow lorises.

The team set off for Lampung, Sumatra yesterday with a group of 12 macaques and four slow lorises. The 12 pig-tailed macaques were supposed to have been released last year but the paperwork has taken ages.

The pre-survey team left for Lampung on 6 June to prepare the habituation cages and, when they let us know that they were almost ready, we started our preparations.

On Wednesday 16 June we started catching the animals at 1400 hrs. They were all weighed and microchipped and blood samples were taken from them. Then in the evening the team set off, arriving in Lampung the next morning for the last stretch of the journey by boat and then on foot.

At the release site the macaques will spend several days in the habituation cage getting used to their surroundings before they are released. Then they will be monitored for about three weeks to make sure they are getting on ok.

News has already come in that they all arrived safely and are already settling in to their new surroundings. So far, so good...!

Helen is much happier and healthier in her new home

Volunteer Paloma updates us on Helen the rescued orangutan's progress at International Animal Rescue's emergency centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

With the arrival of the new units in February at the International Animal Rescue emergency centre, Helen, Jera and Yola were moved from their small enclosures to the bigger ones. Despite still being confined, the extra space and environmental enrichment has seen Helen much more active, and she has begun to build nests with the leaves we give to the orangutans twice a day, just as she would in the wild. She definitely loves the leaves!

In the beginning, Helen started to make her nest just in a corner, then she changed and started to make it in her big hammock, and right now she normally likes to make it in the deep corner of the cage, where she can have interactions with her neighbouring orangutans. She spends a lot of time interacting through the bars with them, and they normally try to steal from each other or pass things to each other, such as the sacks or the leaves. She also likes to play with the enrichment provided, and it is great to see her swinging, swaying and twirling, either by her hands or feet, and behaving like a young orangutan in the wild!

Although it has not been possible to release her yet, Helen's wellbeing has improved a lot since she moved to the bigger enclosure and she looks so much happier and healthier too.