Baby Butan arrives at the centre

IAR volunteer Paloma Corbi tells us about the worrying condition of the latest baby orangutan to be brought into our centre.

A new baby orangutan arrived at the centre on 23 November. She is a female of about four years old and currently receiving round-the-clock intensive care from the vets Adi, Silje, Lusy and paramedic Rica. We have named her Butan.

Butan is infected with a malaria parasite (Plasmodium sp). It's possible that it could be the same malaria parasite that Rahayu was suffering from (a non-falciparum, non-vivax Plasmodium). The team hasn’t yet established the species of Plasmodium but they are doing further tests to investigate it.

The little orangutan is only 6.6kg which makes her extremely underweight (she should be at least 15kg). She is very malnourished and showing signs of some neurological issues. She's making a little slow progress but she's most certainly much better than when she arrived.

Mac makes friends among the infants

Paloma Corbi updates us on how Mac is getting on with the other orangutans at our centre in Ketapang, Western Borneo

Mac is a male orangutan of approximately 3 years old. He arrived at the centre on 19 October. He was confiscated in Pontianak, in an area close to Sintang. Apparently a family had kept him as a pet for at least a year. Then they found out that it was illegal to keep orangutans and they contacted the forestry department who told IAR about the situation. So a member of the team went to check the condition of the orangutan and, although he was in a good physical condition, he had a kind of dermatitis in his eyes, plus conjunctivitis. So the IAR vet gave the family some topical creams and treatments to give Mac until the forestry department gave permission for the orangutan to be rescued and brought to the IAR Orangutan emergency centre in Ketapang. Once all the papers for the confiscation were completed, Mac was rescued and brought to the centre. He kept the same treatment, adding also antihistamine oral medication, and thanks to all this care he recovered in about a week. His blood was tested to see if he has hepatitis , and also the tuberculin test was done. All the tests gave good results so that last week it was decided to socialise him with the rest of the babies.

First of all, Mac was socialised in the baby school while we observed how he behaved with the rest of the orangutans. At the beginning he was fine, investigating his new friends and playing with them, but at some point he started to play in a very rough way so that it was thought that maybe he would be better being with the orangutans in the infant area, and he certainly was! When we brought Mac to the infant area he started to interact with the rest of the orangutans, although he was a bit shy at first. After they made a full inspection of him, he started to get more confident, playing with Melky and Momo first and afterwards with Pungky and Mimi. He also thoroughly enjoyed climbing the trees and the platforms. Since that moment he has joined the orangutans in the infant area every day. And as soon as the new centre is finished he will be able to live in a large forested enclosure and learn how to be a real orangutan!

Introducing little Lasmi

IAR volunteer Paloma Corbi introduces the latest addition to our Orangutan Emergency Centre in Ketapang, Western Borneo

Lasmi arrived at International Animal Rescue’s Orangutan Emergency Centre on 7 November. She is a female with an estimated age of around 3-4 years old. She comes from Ketapang: apparently she was in a police station and she stayed there for about a week before she was brought to the centre by the forestry department. The information they gave us from the police is that Lasmi was being carried in a cage by a man who, when he saw a group of policemen, ran away, leaving the cage with the orangutan on the ground. So the police decided to take her to their offices until they contacted the forestry department. Unluckily, there are some gaps in the information and it is always hard to find out what the real story is.

In any case, when Lasmi arrived at the centre she weighed 9kg, and her face was extremely pale. So her faeces were checked and they were fine. She was also given a blood test the day after she arrived to check if she had any problems and, although she was negative for Malaria, Typhoid was found. She was treated with antibiotics and also given iron to help with the production of red blood cells. When the vets analysed the blood by biochemistry, a liver dysfunction was identified. Thus she will be treated for a long time with multivitamins that come from the curcuma root. This helps the long term recovery of the liver function and apparently the treatment seems to be working as the last blood test done recently by biochemistry has been better compared with the first one done. Moreover she has been tested with the tuberculin test and it seems to be fine.

Lasmi was very shy during the first days but she is getting more confident by the day. She is still in the quarantine period which lasts 1or 2 months, so until then she can’t be socialised with the other baby orangutans. However, she likes to play alone with the enrichments and she loves to put everything on her head, even the food! Consequently she is frequently covered with mango, seeds or papaya. Strangely enough she doesn’t like bananas or the milk, but she loves syrup!! We are all looking forward to seeing her play with the other babies. Let’s hope it’s soon!

Baby Gunung joins the orangutan family in Ketapang

Spanish volunteer Paloma Corbi updates us on the latest news from our orangutan centre in Ketapang

A new baby orangutan arrived at the centre in Ketapang on 3 November. The information we have from the forestry department here in Ketapang is that a man found it in a tree, in an area very close to Gunung Palung called Tanjung Gunung. Apparently he reported to the Gunung Palung National Park office and the National Park contacted the forestry department so that they could rescue the baby. Unfortunately International Animal Rescue was only told about the incident the night before the orangutan was rescued, and so our team wasn’t able to be part of the rescue operation. Thus we don’t have first hand information about what really happened and all the information we have has come secondhand from the forestry department. It is certainly hard to believe that such a young baby orangutan could be found alone in the forest without any sign of the mother around.

The little orangutan has been called “Gunung “ which means “Mountain” in Bahasa Indonesian. He is a male and we estimate just two or three months old, so the little one had been separated from his mother really young.
His condition when he first arrived seemed fine at first glance. However he was really skinny and his weight was just 2.1 kg. When he was checked more thoroughly, the vets found lots of little red spots on his belly and his chest, possibly from an allergic reaction. Also, he had a deep wound on the right side of his head and it was infected - perhaps caused by the impact of falling from a tree but who knows? The baby was treated with topical lotion for his skin and his wound was cleaned every day and treated with antibiotic cream as well. Thanks to all this care he was completely recovered in less than one week.

Gunung has an awesome character even though he is so young: he is very curious, and he is really strong. He has a very powerful grip - very different from Pedro and Paolo. He is in 24 hour care as he needs a lot of attention, and the baby sitters said that he has a very good appetite, normally he is feeding with milk every two hours but sometimes this is shorter as he is hungry before the two hours are up!

The little “mountain” is right now in the quarantine period and it will be like that for one or two months. At the moment, Dr Anita and Paramedic Rica, inform us that his faeces have been already checked and everything seems fine. In approximately one month the bloods test will be done, and the tuberculin test as well. We hope everything about his health is as good as he looks!!

Virgo the macaque joins the family in Ciapus

IAR vet Sharmini updates us on the latest news from our primate centre in Ciapus, Java, home to hundreds of slow lorises and macaques undergoing rehabilitation.

IAR Indonesia received its newest member of the team on September 12th, when a female pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) arrived at the centre in Ciapus. The female, whom we have named Virgo after the September horoscope, was originally found in a local park, before being taken by the BKSDA to the Animal Sanctuary Trust Indonesia, who transferred the macaque to us.

On arriving at the centre, Virgo was placed in to quarantine and underwent a physical examination. As pig-tailed macaques are not native to Java, we were worried about her condition, but our tests showed that she is in overall good health. Although small at just 2kg, her fur is of a good quality, her body seems healthy and her eyes, ears, nose and mouth are clear. The only sign of any physical damage is a small indentation on her tail, but this doesn’t seem to be affecting her. We also tested her for TB, and her first test came back negative.

Virgo will spend a further period in quarantine, before being introduced to Julia, a pig-tailed macaque who had been kept as a pet and arrived at our centre in March. Since her arrival, Julia has made enormous progress and is in a socialisation cage with adult male Rambo, with whom she gets on well. We will separate Julia and Rambo and introduce Virgo to Julia privately, monitor how they interact with each other, and then, over time, decide whether to move them both back in with Rambo.

Orangutan Susi is saved from suffering

IAR vet Dr Adi brings us news of the latest arrival at International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, Western Borneo.

On 30 July IAR vet Dr Anita successfully rescued a four year old female orangutan named Susi from the community in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. When Dr Anita arrived she found poor Susi looking very miserable and living in a terrible state of neglect. She had some really severe injuries, including a foul-smelling neck wound from the heavy chain that had been around her neck for several years until it was eventually removed at Christmas 2010.

Susi was anaesthetised before she was treated. Then Dr Anita and her team checked the condition of the wound before cutting the neck hair around it and cleaning out the pus and necrotic tissue using H2O2. After that Susi was given an injection of antibiotics (Amoxyclav) and analgesic (Tramadol).

Susi was then put in a transport cage in readiness for the move to Ketapang for further treatment and care. During this evacuation process her condition was stable and her appetite was good: she was given all kinds of fruit and ate it all, including rambutan, banana, and mango. On arrival at the Airport Supadio Pontianak, the team headed to the administration of quarantine and cargo aircraft.

Finally, at 1600 hrs, accompanied by Dr Anita and Ms Niken (Balai KSDA Kalbar), Susi travelled to Ketapang, arriving just half an hour later and being brought straight to IAR’s centre. On arrival, Susi was transferred to the quarantine cage to get intensive care from the medical team. Hopefully her condition will improve during the next three to four weeks and her neck wound will begin to heal.

Rahayu races along the road to recovery

Paloma Corbi updates us on little Rahayu's encouraging progress at International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

Rahayu the baby orangutan that arrived in April is making amazing progress. When she arrived she was in a very serious condition: she had the worst type of malaria and this had affected her neurological system. We were very worried during the first week. She didn't show any visual reflex and she was also having convulsions. Thanks to round-the-clock care and appropriate treatment she finally recovered from the malaria. She started to eat and improve by the day, but sadly we weren’t sure whether she would recover from her blindness.

Already two months have passed since then and we have to say that Rahayu's condition now is absolutely wonderful. She has gained 2 kilos since she arrived and now her weight is around 6kg. Her appetite is fine, she doesn't like milk but she drinks water, Oralit and carrot juices which she loves.

As her brain was affected by the malaria we have been treating her with lots of vitamins and a lot of carrot juices. Also, you can see that her eyes are brighter and she has recovered the pupil reflex. She is very active as well, she can climb trees better than other orangutans and she plays with them as well, particularly Sindi who has been transferred to the new playground area and who is probably her best friend. Sindi is always protecting Rahayu and defending her from Puyol who is always trying to bite her!

As for her blindness, the vets think that undoubtedly she can see as she shows great skill climbing the trees and she can recognise parts of the trees as the leaves and parts as the trunks. When the baby keepers put food in the trees, she is able to climb up to get it which is clear proof that Rahayu is able to see. So we can assume that Rahayu's case is one of the happiest that we have dealt with, and we are really thrilled at her amazing progress!

You can take part in IAR's exciting project to build a brand new rehab centre for orangutans in West Kalimantan. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity, so book now to avoid disappointment!