Kukur, the young pet orangutan who was rescued by members of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and IAR Indonesia, has recently started school. Five year old Kukur had been kept in a hut in the middle of the woods in West Borneo with a family and their other domesticated animals such as dogs, pigs, and chickens. The man of the family claimed to have found Kukur in the forest while he was farming. He said he felt sorry for the orangutan and so brought him home and kept him as a pet. He kept him tied up by a rope around his neck and fed him on rice and other human food such as instant noodles and coffee, as well as fruit.
After he was rescued, Kukur spent eight weeks in quarantine at IAR’s Orangutan Conservation Centre in Ketapang, West Borneo. During that time he was regularly checked for contagious diseases that could be transmitted to people or other orangutans at the centre. He was found to have some old wounds on his wrists and ankles, presumably the result of being tied up for long periods of time. But otherwise, at the end of the eight weeks, Kukur was given a clean bill of health.
Even during his time in quarantine, Kukur showed that he had the ability to build nests like a wild orangutan. Once the quarantine period was at an end, the team at the centre paired him with another orangutan his age named Limpang so that he would have a friend before he joined forest school. The socialisation went well, with both Kukur and Limpang showing an interest in playing with each other, although at first Kukur was quite jealous when attention was paid to Limpang! Kukur’s nestbuilding also improved after he became friends with Limpang.
Kukur recently joined a group of orangutans on one of the islands in the rehabilitation centre so that he can socialise with others of his kind too. On Setrum Island there are orangutans of roughly the same age and weight as Kukur. When he first arrived on the island, Kukur was very nervous and always wanted to stay close to his keeper. When the keeper placed him in the tree, he looked afraid to climb. But then some of his friends came along and they started playing together in the trees.
Alan Knight OBE, IAR Chief Executive, said: “Kukur has made a very encouraging start to his journey through rehabilitation. We can’t replace his mother but, with coaxing from the keepers and, more importantly, the company of other young orangutans, he is already starting to learn the ropes and develop the skills he will need if he is one day to return to his rightful home in the forest. Orangutans are 90% arboreal – they spend nearly all their time up in the trees foraging for food. So it is vital that Kukur learns to climb and move around confidently off the ground. That is his first lesson!
“This is a perfect example of our rehabilitation programme in action. It can take years for orangutans like Kukur to acquire all the behaviours they need to survive in the wild. It requires a huge investment of time and money to prepare them for release. We are so grateful to everyone who supports this lifesaving work which is helping to bring orangutans back from the brink of extinction.”