September 6, 2017

BAMBOO CANE ENRICHMENT

When happi spends his time at the socialization enclosure, the animal keepers are making enrichment for him. These enrichment are to help the orangutans shows their natural instinct. Not only for making them busy, but also to avoid boredom and feeling stressed out being in a cage. Therefore, these bamboos-and-leaves-made enrichment are created for them.

Several kinds of Happi’s favorite fruits are inserted inside the bamboo cane. Guavas, papayas, bananas, and corns are diced, then put into the bamboo cane with a hole on the top of it, then sealed with leaves. And the keepers also add some honey to stimulates their sense of smell and taste bud so they are more excited when opening the bamboo cane.

In the end, Happi needed a quite long time opening the cane. He even asked for our help opening this bamboo enrichment. Perhaps he begins to feel desperate. Happi is in the same enclosure with Owi, Bonti and Pingpong, and they are started to work together. They take turns to smash the bamboo cane, working through the hole, extended their finger and mouth to reach the fruits inside until they finally get the prize.

Would you like to be his adopter? Find this link to adopting him https://www.orangutan.org.au/adoption/adopt/happi/?referrer_source=COP

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September 4, 2017

CAN CHINESE ALSO SAVE ORANGUTAN? (CHINESE VOLUNTEERS 3)

Nowadays, orangutans are not known by many Chinese people. Opposite to popularity of orangutans in China, palm oil is widely used in China.

In the past five months, Indonesian total palm oil production is 151,100,000 tons. Compare to last year, 2016, this production increased thirty-five percent. During those years, Indonesia produce more and more palm oil. Also, as one of the biggest importing country, China is going to import around 5,600,000 tons of palm oil this year. This is about one third of Indonesian palm oil production in the first half year of 2017. And this number also increases every year.

What’s more, China takes part in producing palm oil as well. In China, there are several international palm oil companies, such as Ju Long. In Indonesia, many Singapore and Malaysian palm oil companies’ major shareholders are ethnic Chinese as well. This means, China is not only the main consumer but also one of the primary players of palm oil business in the world and it is unconsciously influencing and damaging orangutans.

In China, we have pop stars, like Jackie Chan, broadcast about the importance of protecting wild animals and advocate people not to buy animal products. However, although they indeed call for guarding wildlife, such as tigers, sharks and so on, they pay little attention to orangutans. Before I became a member of this volunteer work, I had never heard of orangutans, so do people surround me. From the other hand, this may be a good thing because Chinese people can start from origin point to involving themselves into orangutan protection. According to former examples, public advocate is one of the most useful ways. Since Jackie Chan said, ‘No trade will bring no kill. Please do not buy any tiger products.’, the number of tiger products trade has begun to decrease. In the same way, the prospect of orangutan protection in China is very optimistic.

We, our group of six, plan to cooperate with COP members. Since orangutans are not well-known in China, we decide to use our videos which are made of resources we collected in Indonesia to advocate and hold a crowdfunding in Shanghai after we go back. The money we find will be donated to COP to support their assistance of orangutans. Also, through our crowdfunding and speech, we wish the publicity of orangutans in China can be set up.

I am not sure how much help could we bring, but maybe our participation is just the beginning of more Chinese being more involved in orangutan conservation. And that would mean something subtle but significant. (Zi Chen, Jiawei Yang_Orangufriends)

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September 3, 2017

PERSIAPAN RILIS ORANGUTAN DI CAMP LEJAK

Minggu ini adalah waktunya mempersiapkan camp Lejak. Camp yang akan dipergunakan untuk memonitor orangutan setelah dilepasliarkan. Pembelian mesin air, generator pembangkit listrik, perlengkapan tidur dan dapur untuk kebutuhan tim di lapangan. Saat ditata di perahu yang mengangkut barang-barang lewat jalur sungai, muatan melebihi batas muatan perahu. “Ternyata banyak juga ya yang harus dibawa.”, ujar Inoy, penanggung jawab di camp Lejak. Akhirnya, tim terpaksa menyewa satu perahu lagi untuk membawa kebutuhan camp.

Perjalanan sungai memang dipilih setelah mempertimbangkan waktu tempuh dan jalur yang lebih mudah dicapai. Menyusuri sungai selama 1 jam dengan jeram yang cukup lumayan membuat perahu agak oleng-oleng karena sungai yang mulai surut. Bahkan perahu ‘Way Back Home’ sempat kandas karena sungai Kelay yang surut secara ekstrim. Syukurlah menjelang pukul 19.00 WITA, barang-barang sudah masuk camp dengan bantuan teman-teman dari OWT.

Melepasliarkan orangutan kembali ke hutan bukan pekerjaan mudahkan? Dua bulan yang lalu, camp lejak juga baru saja diperbaiki. “Tolong, jangan pelihara satwa liar ya. Karena mengembalikannya, adalah usaha yang panjang dan rumit.”, ujar Daniek Hendarto, direktur operasional COP. Dalam bulan September ini, Centre for Orangutan Protection akan melepasliarkan orangutan dari Kebun Raya UNMUL Samarinda (KRUS) yang telah melalui rehabilitasi di COP Borneo.

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