Two of our female macaques make great mums!

An update from our primate centre in Ciapus, Java from volunteer Chris Wiggs.

On 3rd January, James, an infant male pig-tailed macaque, was brought in to our rescue centre in Ciapus by an expatriate European family living in Indonesia, who had kept him as a pet for 2.5 months. James is an extremely active young macaque, and our mandatory tests on arrival confirmed that he was healthy.

What to do with very young primates is always a challenge. Like human infants, they need a lot of affection, love and care, but if that is provided by IAR staff, there is a danger that they will become too dependent on humans, and jeopardise their chances of rehabilitation and eventual release, the ultimate goal of our project. Luckily, not long after we confirmed he was healthy and unable to pass any disease to other macaques, we were able to place him in a cage with Nonong, an independent adult female, who we hoped would adopt James and raise him herself. IAR staff were all tentative as we introduced them to each other, but as it turned out, there was nothing to be concerned about. Nonong and James have developed a strong bond, and Nonong is an extremely attentive mother, happy to share her food with James and indulgent of his rather boisterous character.

James was the second baby macaque that had been brought to our centre in the last few months. On 25th November, Dora, a female long-tailed macaque, was bought in by staff from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network. Dora was quite thin and extremely anxious when she first arrived, but in otherwise good health. After spending sometime in quarantine, building up her strength and getting accustomed to her new surroundings, it was decided that we would introduce her to Joy, an adult long-tailed female. Like James and Nonong, the introduction went well, and Dora and Joy now share a large enclosure together, and it’s lovely to see them play together, using the enrichment we provide and sharing food.

It’s heartening to see how well Joy and Nonong have taken to motherhood, and how well Dora and James have adapted, and we hope it bodes well for their future in the wild. However, while these two may have found a foster mother and now await their release into the wild, we can’t ignore that many other macaques are kept as pets - often caught when they are very young. IAR continues to educate and create awareness about macaques used as pets and strongly discourages people from doing this NO matter how cute they are!

Three macaques get their first taste of freedom

News of our latest macaque rescues from Chris Wiggs, volunteer at our primate centre in Ciapus, Java.

Our macaque and slow loris rescue centre in Ciapus was recently contacted by a member of the public, concerned about a long-tailed macaque she had seen chained up in a residential street in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Long-tailed macaques are a common household pet throughout Indonesia, and it isn’t unusual to see them kept in this way, particularly when they reach adulthood.

Further discussions with this woman revealed that she was herself the owner of two long-tailed macaques. After our vets explained about our centre and the ethical issues and challenges of keeping primates in captivity, she agreed to hand them over to us. So last week the IAR team headed to Jakarta to rescue three macaques!

The first macaque was an adult male that was being kept outside someone’s house, and was attached to a wooden bench by a chain around his waist. Although the owner insisted he often took the macaque for walks, the macaque looked agitated and was continually biting himself. The area was busy, and directly opposite a very noisy school, so it isn’t difficult to imagine how frightened he must have been. In these situations, IAR vets usually use a blow dart to anaesthetise macaques, but as a large number of local people, including children, had gathered round to watch, it was decided to try and sedate him by hand. The IAR vets assessed the situation and felt it was safe to do it by hand while using a net for protection. How local people interpret our actions is incredibly important to us, and we were worried how using a blow dart would look, particularly to school children! Once the macaque had been anaesthetised, he was transferred in to an IAR transport cage, and our vet Intan gave a presentation to the local residents about our project, why we were taking the macaque and our veterinary procedures. Leaflets were also handed out. The fact that a member of the public had alerted us to this macaque in the first place is a positive sign, and we hope our outreach activities continue these developments!

We then went to rescue the two macaques kept as pets. One of these macaques, a young female, was chained to a tree, while the other, a slightly older female, was kept in a cage. Although the conditions were completely inappropriate for macaques, in a busy residential area, just off a main road, and the macaque in the cage had obviously been plucking the hairs out of her legs, the owner clearly loved the animals, and she had a good relationship with them. Although she was upset to give them up, they will have a far better life at our centre, where they will be introduced to other macaques, begin the rehabilitation process and be assessed for possible future release back in to the wild.

All three macaques are currently undergoing quarantine, and will be tested for any diseases in the coming days.

New Years update from our baby school

Norwegian vet Silje provides an update on the babies at our emergency centre in Ketapang

2012 is starting off hot in Ketapang, and the babies are cooling off with some ice blocks filled with fruit and syrup. Lasmi has finally finished her quarantine period and was introduced to the juveniles in their play area a few weeks ago. She was immediately checked out by the gang, Melky of course leading the “attack”, and was soon accepted in the group. Lasmi is still quite cautious, but has fitted in well with the rest.

Also out testing new ground is little Gunung, who is now regularly allowed a sneak peak at his future play-comrades in the baby school. Under close supervision he is being brought to the outside play area and introduced to the other babies. He is certainly a little unsure in the new environment, but is comforted gently by among others Lady and Rahayu.

Our latest arrival, Butan, is also showing slow, but steady improvement from her severe malnourishment and malaria infection. She is still under 24 hours a day care by the medical team, receiving medication and physiotherapy. Because of her traumas in the past, she was very depressed and had almost no muscle mass. But her appetite has increased and she is more agile, now she spends most of her time in the trees in the quarantine area – clearing them for ants! Still she has a long way to go for a full recovery, but she has a strong and wonderful personality and thankfully she is getting a little better every day.

In the clinic we are now able to add ultrasound examination to our diagnostic aids, thanks to Jan F Andersen AS, a Norwegian veterinary equipment company. One of the first candidates to test the new machine was Bandut, a 4 year old male who has a long history of diarrhoea and anaemia. This will be a great tool for us in the diagnostic work here, and as long as we make sure to bribe the orangutans with some tasty fruits, they are quite cooperative!

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!!