Month: May 2016

Announcing InfiniteEARTH’s new Matching Gifts Campaign!

InfiniteEARTH has pledged to match up to $100,000 in donations to OFI over the next six months. OFI has been working beside The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, an InfiniteEARTH Project in Borneo for the last several years. Now, InfiniteEARTH, the parent company behind Rimba Raya, has generously offered to further assist our field operations. From… Continue reading Announcing InfiniteEARTH’s new Matching Gifts Campaign!

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PRESS RELEASE: Mexico City, April 2016

Dr. Galdikas presents at the Segundo Congreso La Bioética y los Animales Mexico City, Mexico – April 20, 2016 Dr. Galdikas, OFI President and Founder, gave a presentation at the Segundo Congreso La Bioética y los Animales (Second Congress of Bioethics and Animals) on her over 40 years’ experience studying the Bornean orangutan. The Congreso… Continue reading PRESS RELEASE: Mexico City, April 2016

Observe the World with Yosuke

Each and every orangutan at the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine (OCCQ) in Kalimantan has an individual personality that distinguishes them from their peers. Choosing just one orangutan to feature as each month’s “Orangutan of the Month” can often be a taxing endeavor as the OCCQ oranugtans all stand apart and are all unique. But… Continue reading Observe the World with Yosuke

Orangutan Care Series: The Infants

Since its establishment in 1971, Orangutan Foundation International (then termed Orangutan Research and Conservation Program) has cared for vulnerable orphaned orangutans who have been brutally separated from their mothers, along with older injured and displaced orangutans. Without a doubt, the most helpless orangutans at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) are the newly arrived… Continue reading Orangutan Care Series: The Infants

OFI Celebrates Its New Mothers

Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) works tirelessly to rehabilitate and release wild born ex-captive orangutans back into the wild. This process is a long one as orangutan infants in the wild will stay with their mothers for at least the first eight years of their lives. During the rehabilitation process the orangutan orphans who call the… Continue reading OFI Celebrates Its New Mothers

WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 16234 [post_author] => 10287 [post_date] => 2016-05-02 14:15:53 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-05-02 21:15:53 [post_content] => 2016-03-30_Seluang Mas_Nanda_anak_MHP_01_wmOrangutan Foundation International (OFI) works tirelessly to rehabilitate and release wild born ex-captive orangutans back into the wild. This process is a long one as orangutan infants in the wild will stay with their mothers for at least the first eight years of their lives. During the rehabilitation process the orangutan orphans who call the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ) home have to learn all of the forest skills they will need for a life back in the wild. OFI caregivers work hard to prepare orphaned, injured, and displaced orangutans for life back in the forest. When the day arrives that an orangutan is ready to be released back into the wild, it is always a joyous occasion for OFI staff and caregivers. The release represents the culmination of years of strenuous work preparing the orangutans for life in the forest. For the orangutans, it means that they will now get their second chance to live in the wild as they were born to do. Once orangutans are released, OFI field staff based at the release site monitor the orangutans and send back news to the OCCQ about how the newly released orangutans are doing. OCCQ caregivers are always delighted to learn that a released male has grown cheek pads. They are particularly pleased to hear that one of the released ex-captive female orangutans has become a mother. AI0_1901_(CLAIRE)_wmHappily, there has been a bit of a baby boom recently at one of OFI’s forest release sites which sits on the edge of Tanjung Puting National Park with untouched rainforest – much of it peat swamp – spreading out behind. Female orangutans Claire, Lidya, Jade, Nanda, Noni, Ruby, and Septi, all of whom were rehabilitated at the OCCQ and released in 2013, have matured into adulthood and now have offspring of their own! Most of the newborns are males. They cling on tight as their mothers climb through the forest. OFI field staff love watching the mothers with their babies. 2016-04-08_Seluang Mas_Ruby_Anak_MHP_01_wmThe long-term staff members who have been with OFI for decades fondly remember the new mothers as infant orangutans living at the OCCQ. OFI’s Deputy Manager, Ibu Sumi, worked for OFI as a teenager while in high school. She remembers when Noni arrived as a tiny infant, orphaned, listless, and sick. Ibu Sumi slept with Noni every night and after dedicated attention and care, Noni soon began to thrive. Ibu Sumi is very proud that Noni is now back in the wild with an infant of her own. Other staff recall Lidya as a very quiet infant and Jade as wild and un-trusting of humans when she first arrived at the OCCQ. Any staff member who has been with OFI for a decade or more remembers the released females and all say they celebrated on the day when each orangutan was released back into the wild, and then again with the news that these orangutans had successfully birthed their own infants. 2016-04-08_Seluang Mas_Jade_anak_MHP_02_wmHaving grown up together at the OCCQ and reuniting in the forest as free-ranging orangutans, these females have formed a strong bond. So close is the friendship between Nanda and Lydia that whenever the staff spots one of them, the other is never far behind. They both have sons around the same age, and Nanda even trusts Lydia enough to leave her son in Lydia’s care while she forages for leaves and plays with adolescent orangutan Sandra in nearby trees. Lydia and Nanda’s sons play together contently until Nanda decides to return to her son and move on with him clinging onto her side. 2016-04-08_Seluang Mas_Jade_anak_MHP_01_wmNot all of the orangutan females had their offspring at the same time; the oldest infants are now around two years of age. The newest infant addition to the group was only born late in 2015. Some of the mothers hang around close while others travel much further afield. When one of the far-ranging mothers arrives near camp, the field staff always have a treat seeing how much the infant has grown since they last saw him/her. Recently OFI field staff noticed that one of the other released female orangutans seems to be pregnant, so it will not be long before there is another infant orangutan to join the ranks! 2016-03-30_Seluang Mas_Nanda_anak_MHP_02_wmObserving a female orangutan with an infant in the wild is a special sight. It feels even more special when that mother has been released back into the wild after being rehabilitated at the OCCQ. OFI works to protect and preserve the orangutans of Borneo and 2016-03-30_Seluang Mas_Lidya_anak_MHP_03_wm with the arrival of new infants, the cycle seems to have come full circle. These rehabilitated mothers, after learning the skills of the forest at the OCCQ, now have the opportunity to raise their offspring in the wild and pass on their skills, a chance that was brutally taken from them as infants when their own mothers were killed and they were snatched from their mothers’ bodies. After the trauma of losing their own mothers, these new mothers have been given a second chance to live in the wild with the knowledge that their offspring will be safe to live and learn. So let’s celebrate OFI’s new mothers and all of the OFI staff who assisted these orangutans in reaching this important stage in their lives! 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