August 19th is International #OrangutanDay

The team at Tuanan and CORE Borneo celebrates orangutans today and wanted to share some pictures and news from our recent surveys in the forest. While we are not currently collecting data on orangutans due to COVID, our amazing orangutan research team has continued to conduct surveys in the forest. We are following very strict COVID procedures we have put in place, to ensure the safety of our staff and the orangutans in the forest (checking daily temperatures, wearing masks in the forest, not going close to orangutans).

Daily temperature checks are part of the daily COVID protocol at the Tuanan research station

These surveys are important for our long-term database that includes continuous behavioral data on wild orangutans at Tuanan since 2003. With our surveys, we can monitor individuals, record who is around in the forest, and also look for new births.

In May, Isman found Streisel, who we had not seen since March of 2019. Streisel was an independent female who had never given birth. Her story is a bit unique, in that her mother Sidony was killed by a coalition of two wild orangutans (you can read out it in the publication here by Anna Marzec and team).

Streisel was not present when her mother was attacked, but her younger brother Sony was. After his mother finally succumbed to her injuries and died, Sony, who was only 4 years old at the time and far too young to be on his own, quickly found Streisel in the forest and for years (up until we last saw Streisel in early 2019), the two of them traveled together in the forest. Streisel was observed carrying him and helping his cross tree gaps, just as a mother orangutan would do with her offspring. Streisel was a very nice and patient big sister and cared after her younger brother.

In May 2020, in the midst of the COVID epidemic, Isman found Streisel during one of the surveys and she had a baby clinging to her! Based on the size and physical strength of the infant, we think this baby was likely born in March or April of 2019 and was a little over a year old. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact birth date but we now know Streisel’s new range and are checking on her and baby Susan monthly. Below you will see some of the fun pictures of our newest member to the Tuanan orangutan family, Baby Susan.

So on this International Orangutan Day, we celebrate all of the orangutans of Tuanan (and throughout SE Asia) and will continue to work hard to protect orangutans and the threatened forests where they reside. Below you will see just a few members of the Tuanan orangutans. Help us protect one of the largest populations of wild orangutans in all of Indonesia by donating to CORE Borneo today using this link (https://coreborneo.com/donate/)! It is only through your generous donations that we can continue to protect this population and continue to learn about their amazing biology. Thank you!