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!

Our orangutan infants have a new place to play

Paloma updates us on the latest improvements to International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

With 11 new orangutans arriving just last month, we have been making some improvements to the centre. As five of these orangutans are infants between 3 and 4 years old, it has been necessary to provide another area where they can play once they have completed the quarantine period. The new area is four times bigger than the baby school and it also has more trees.

However, the ground is wet, which is good because it makes them spend more time in the trees, but at the same time it is hard to build platforms and structures for them to play on.

During this entire month the plan has been to prepare this area for the new infant orangutans, although Melky, Bunga and Sindy are already enjoying the area.

Thanks to the help of the first volunteer group from WOX, the Great Orangutan Project, and IAR’s Ketapang team, the first platform has been finished. It has four floors and is very strong. The idea is to give the orangutans food on these platforms so they will get used to being high up and overcome any fear.

We still have a lot of work to do to make this infant area a great place which they can really enjoy, while at the same time training and improving their natural behaviours. It will be wonderful to see them all playing once it is finished!

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!

Our 11 new orangutans soon settle in

Team vet Jenny Jaffe updates us on the new arrivals at International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

The rescue centre in Ketapang has been going through some quick changes in the last month. We took in 11 new orangutans in one go, so a lot of preparation was needed to receive them and it is a bit busier now. All of the new animals have already had their thorough health check (under anaesthesia) and are settling in well in their new environment.

There are five youngsters called Pungky, Momo, Mimi, Prima and Pinoh. They are very lively and active, and have amazed me by already being able to open a huge coconut on their own.

The adults are Pingky, Suki, Neng, Cinta (all female) and Raja and Jimo (males). Raja is very strong and people passing by the cage have to keep a good eye on him as he does like grabbing your t-shirt to pull you closer to the cage. And then its a bit of a challenge to get him to let go!

A huge new enclosure has been prepared at the back of the transit centre. The orangutans that were getting a bit too boisterous for the baby school have already been moved there (Bunga, Cindy, Melky). When the new youngsters have passed their quarantine period, they can get to know their new friends and make the most of their new home by swinging on the ropes and through the trees. It is not yet the forest environment that we have envisioned for them, but it is already a step in the right direction.

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!

Rahayu’s progress makes us proud

Team vet Jenny Jaffe updates us on Rahayu's progress at International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

Rahayu, the baby orangutan that was brought to us with severe malaria and who needed intensive care for weeks, is doing well. She has gained a good amount of weight and been integrated with the rest of the baby school now.

She can obviously hear by this point, but still cannot see owing to damage from the malaria parasite. I was initially a bit sceptical about how well a sightless orangutan would do in (our miniature version of) a forest, but our executive director Dr Karmele, assured me she knew of a blind adult at another rescue centre who was able to climb up high in the trees.

So after Rahayu’s quarantine period was over and she had showed skills at mastering her little jungle gym/hammock structure, we dared introduce her to the rest of the group. First just for half an hour, but when she showed supreme confidence, the next few days for longer and longer periods of time. Now she is out and about most of the day with the others. She climbs about happily, waving a free arm around till she finds something to grip, and then holding on very tight. She can manage to get to the very top of the tallest tree we have here at the baby school. She can even deal with the other orangutans playing with her while up there, pulling at an arm or a leg. We are so proud of her.

One of the funniest moments was when she latched onto our biggest, brashest male orangutan at the baby school, Melky.

He is normally a bit of a bad boy, but now he was staggering around with Rahayu holding on tightly with her little hands and feet to the hair on his belly. Melky looked like a proper surrogate daddy for a brief moment. You could almost see him thinking: ‘How on earth did I end up in this position?’

Bandut takes to the treetops

Team vet Jenny Jaffe updates us on Bandut's progress at International Animal Rescue's orangutan centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

Bandut, the newest addition to our group and the star of my last blog entry, is doing well. He is still in quarantine while we await the results of his blood tests (they were sent to an external lab). The stool samples we examined in our clinic just after he arrived were negative for worm eggs. But to be on the safe side we gave him deworming medication anyway and some nice dead worms came out with his stool the next day, so I’m happy our ‘new animal protocol’ does routinely include deworming!

The idea of keeping him separate from the other youngsters for a fixed period is of course to prevent him from transmitting any new diseases to them.

Apart from his health our main concern was that he might find it hard to get ‘jungle skills’ as he had been treated as a human baby for so long. Happily, during the day, when he is out of the enclosure he sleeps in, he loves climbing high up in the trees. And he is managing to find the small ripe fruits up there hanging from the farthest branches. Bandut is monitored constantly while he is exploring, as the ‘emergency centre’ he stays at is not really built for curious little orangutans and without somebody watching him, he could easily escape!

It might have been mentioned before, but this is the set up we have now: the ‘emergency centre’ for the 11 older orangutans who stay in big cages, and the ‘baby school’ playground for the 14 youngsters. This is a temporary set up though, and work is already underway on the new land that has been acquired about 15 kilometres away. It is a wonderful location for true rehabilitation as it is surrounded by and contains quite a lot of forest with the huge trees orangutans love. It is an enormous job to create the quality rehabilitation centre we have envisioned there and it needs a large investment. But the idea of seeing these forest apes swinging happily in the trees all day long is extremely motivating. International Animal Rescue Indonesia has some exciting times coming up...