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Orangutans -"People of the Forest"
I never imagined in those first months that during the next four years Rod
and I would spend more than 5000 hours observing wild orangutans. We
studied not-so-wild subjects too, for we became a "halfway house" through
which young orangutans, accustomed to captivity, were returned to their
natural life in the forest.
In social behavior the orangutan has always been considered very
different not only from man but also from all other monkeys and apes,
including its African cousins, the gorilla and chimpanzee. Primates have
been characterized as social animals par excellence, but the wild orangutans
Rod and I saw in those early months were almost invariably solitary: lone
males, or adult females accompanied only by their dependent young. Yet I
knew that orangutans must meet and interact -- if only to breed -- and I
longed to know the full extent of such relationships.
My earliest observations were of orangutans feeding, moving through the
trees, and nesting. Generally, they made a new tree nest each night out of
branches and leaves; sometimes they built nests during the day too, for naps
and to sit out rainstorms. Also, unlike the other great apes, orangutans made
overhead platforms or covered themselves with branches as protection
against downpours.
Orangutans seemed to prefer fruit, but they ate considerable quantities of
young leaves and the soft material on the inside of bark as well. The
orangutans would also spend endless hours crushing hard nuts with their
teeth. Juveniles and infants, lacking the enormous jaws of their mothers,
could not usually open nuts, so instead took bits and pieces from their
mothers' mouths. Sometimes a mother would refuse to share, causing the
youngster to throw a violent tantrum.
Perhaps my most vivid memory, though, is of that scorching day I came
face to face with a large adult male on the ground. He was just ambling
along, head down, oblivious to my presence. Then he stopped dead in his
tracks less than twelve feet (3.6 m) away. For long seconds he stared and
stared. Strangely, I felt no fear. I simply marvelled at how magnificent he
looked with his coat blazing orange in the full sunlight. Abruptly, he
whirled around and was gone. My confrontation with this big male seemed
to bear out a traditional belief that the wild orangutan is mild and retiring.
Rarest of the apes, wild orangutans are restricted to diminishing ranges
on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. It has long been illegal in Indonesia
and Malaysia to own, kill, or export them, but until recently the laws were
not strictly enforced. The threat of extinction still hangs over the orangutan
because of the slaughter of mothers by poachers trying to capture their
infants and the wholesale destruction of their habitat by logging and
agricultural land-clearing operations. For years captive orangutans have
been bought at high prices for zoos and laboratories around the world,
though lately conservation groups have reduced the illegal trafficking.
But what do you do with "repossessed" young orangutans ? Without
expert guidance these unfortunate animals usually die from disease, malnutrition and neglect. Rod and I hoped to teach them the ways of the forest,
and how to become "wild" again. |
