Doris
Doris was less than a year old when her mother died. Now she is 8 years old and in the care of the Great Orangutan Project team. She is highly mischievous and highly intelligent; she plays hide-and-seek with the volunteers.
Since I first met Doris over a year ago she has gone from being in her large enclosure to being taken into the jungle on a daily basis by her carer. Mr Jugah (who many volunteers may know as Apai) has been taken on by WOX as Doris’ rehabilitation officer due to his wealth of experience and his job
She now leaves her enclosure at the centre daily and is taken along the boardwalk (constructed by volunteers) up to the platforms where once she had settled into her surroundings I videoed her confident enough to leave her keepers side and swing along the ropes through the trees she also was quite happy to then climb back down a tree get her breath back and then start again. Having only ever seen Doris in her cage surrounding it was a wonderful sight to see her in the forest where she belongs.
You can find out more about Doris or volunteer at Matang here The Great Orangutan Project
There are plenty of videos of Doris showing her jungle training progress here.
Doris on her first day in the jungle:
Doris’ progress to date - she climbs a tree!
January 2008
Since returning to Matang I have been amazed to see the progress nearly 8 year old Doris has made. In December Leo took her out into the jungle for her first day, and by her third day she climbed a tree.
Doris holds tightly on to Leo whilst Ting San looks on:
She now leaves her enclosure at the centre daily and is taken along the boardwalk (constructed by volunteers) up to the platforms where once she had settled into her surroundings I videoed her confident enough to leave her keepers side and swing along the ropes through the trees she also was quite happy to then climb back down a tree get her breath back and then start again. Having only ever seen Doris in her cage surrounding it was a wonderful sight to see her in the forest where she belongs.
After being told by experts that Doris was too old to be rehabiliated everyone at the centre is shocked by her progress. This now means that the rehabilitation programme has well and truly started at Matang Wildlife Centre.
You can watch more videos of Doris here and read more about her progress here
The following is an extract from www.orangutanproject.com & as I was there in the early stages of Doris’ rehabilitation I thought that I would include it here; if anyone ould like to keep up to date with her progress please use the above link.
Doris’ Rehabilitation into the Wild
Doris is 7 years old female orangutan who has spent 7 years in various enclosures and cages in Matang Wildlife Centre. Though she had been released thrice into the rainforest, she returned on every occasion to the security of her cage and the regular meals. Her best friends during these years have been Sambar Deer, who share her enclosure, and humans, both those who are her custodians and those that visit the Centre. A lack of contact with the wild had left Doris wary of the jungle and some even thought she would never climb a tree.
That has all changed. Since the beginning of January, we have been employing a local Malaysian who is skilled in rehabilitation and together with other staff and volunteers, we have been repeatedly taking Doris into the forest. Some of these early outings can be seen on the video clips on this website. We have also started to introduce Doris to baby Ting San and Mamu, which has proved a great success and is allowing her to spend more time with her species and giving her the confidence to climb with them into the tree canopy.
We normally severely limit volunteers’ interaction during the rehabilitation process, however, Doris is an exception as she finds the human presence a comfort. We therefore allow a small group of 2 or 3 people to join the outings for educational purposes.
By the end of January, Doris has been regularly walking 50 minutes into the jungle, to a ranger station where we hope to start spending nights outdoors with her. Simply getting her to walk so deep into the forest is a major achievement in itself but on the very last day of January, she disappeared off by herself for half an hour. After searching and calling we eventually found her a small distance away half way up a tree! This is fantastic news and we were ecstatic to see this. The fact that she has the confidence to leave our presence for such an extended time, and that she used that time to climb into the trees and explore her natural domain after only a month’s training is very promising for the future. She is also regularly eating natural foods from the forest rather than bananas an papayas. This has been helped by our “Behavioural Enrichment” program that supplements her feed with fruits from the jungle so that she learns gradually some of the 450 different plant species that orangutans have been found to eat in the wild.
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Doris’ rehabilitation will continue throughout February and we will keep you posted with any and every significant progress.
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