January, 11 2019
Orangutan of the Month: Jono When migrants return to their motherland, are they more at home coming back to their land of origin or are they now more displaced? Humans all over the world grapple with this dissonance but in our search for belonging, we forget that we are not the only unsettled species. Today,…
Read MoreDecember, 1 2013
Meeting Congo at OFI’s Care Center and Quarantine in Pasir Panjang, Kalimantan Tengah, is something that visitors don’t easily forget. He is impressive bcause of his large size, lustrous, long hair and his sheer charisma. He seems as tall as a human being when he stands up. He is still a subadult male with a…
Read MoreMay, 17 2013
Mighty Montana The Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine (OCCQ) in Borneo is a temporary home to hundreds of young orphaned orangutans building up the skills and confidence they need to be released back into the wild. But the OCCQ is home to a small handful of fully-grown adult male orangutans as well. One of these…
Read MoreSeptember, 26 2011
Boy Oh boy! At approximately 140 kilograms (300 pounds), Boy is definitely the “big man” at OFI’s Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine (OCCQ). Not much of Boy’s history is known but his fully developed cheek pads tell us that he is at least 20 years old. Male Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) demonstrate arrested development; they…
Read MoreMay, 1 2000
In 1987, when I first came to Camp Leakey as an Earthwatch volunteer, there were three sub-adult orangutans in camp: Pola, Yayat, and Kusasi. Two years later, I was in a kelotok which was carrying an Earthwatch team to Kumai on the first leg of their trip home. Suddenly, a speedboat pulled up alongside. It…
Read MoreFebruary, 2 1999
Kusasi has been a resident of the Camp Leakey area for over 10 years. He came as an ex-captive youngster and has grown to be a handsome cheekpadded adult. He is the dominant male in the Camp Leakey area and has fathered a number of infants due to successful consortships with the adult females in…
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