Doris
In the orangutan conservation world, it is generally a rule of thumb that only baby orangutans should be rehabilitated back into the wild. Teenage orangutans are considered to old and unmanageable for the rehabilitation process. We have experts in the past that have failed to achieve anything with our very own teenager, Doris. Doris was so humanised after years of captivity that rehabilitation was considered impossible by many. One expert even diagnosed her with vertigo!
However, on Wednesday 22nd of October 2009, a date etched into orangutan conservation history, the Great Orangutan Project’s very own Leo Biddle, along with Sarawak Forestry’s courageous keepers, Hillary and Eddie, managed to spend a night in the forest at the ‘Piers Mott’ Ranger Station with teenage orangutan, Doris. Here’s the update from Leo himself:
“On Wednesday 22nd we managed to convince Doris to spend her first night ever in the jungle, at the newly completed Piers Mott Ranger Station previous volunteers have worked so hard to build.
Doris out in the jungle
For much of the last year Doris has been going out on excursions into the forest under supervision, but until Wednesday has always been brought back to the orangutan dens at night.
Unlike Ting San and Mamu, who have spent many nights out already, we have been waiting for Doris’ confidence in the forest to increase before making her take this important next step towards eventual release.
At points in her training prior we have kept her in the jungle until the light begins to fade before bringing her back in. On these occasions she has generally made it emphatically clear that she does not wish to remain in the jungle at night and Doris’ size and considerable strength are very effective at making points emphatically!
A part of this is due to fear of the unfamiliar; the jungle at night is very different to during the day with different noises and insects – indeed when we have taken previous volunteers on night walks or to camp out there, several of them have found it to be a frightening or challenging experience…
Another factor of course is a break from the routine. Captive orangutan, just like other animals including humans, can quickly become habituated to a daily regime prevalent to their confinement and despite our continuing efforts on enrichment for the last 9 years – Doris has slept at night in a cage.
When she was first taken into the jungle back in December 2007 it was a wholly new experience for her and one that took her time to adjust to; until now it would be fair to say that she enjoys her days spent in jungle training. In time we hope to persuade her that sleeping in the jungle at night can be equally enriching and rapidly become routine.
Doris seemed to be suspicious when we hoisted her over her enclosure wall much later than normal; but presented with the prospect of accompanying three of her favourite keepers into the jungle she was content to follow.
On arrival at the new station, Doris acted as though it had always been there; promptly going up to the door and even knocking!
Shortly after arriving at the station the light rapidly began to fade; aside from a few gentle shoves to remind us we really ought to be heading back and slightly more wistful stares back in the direction we had came from Doris was surprisingly relaxed at the impending night out of doors.
We later all agreed that she probably knew what we were taking her out for around the time we lowered a rope over her wall back at the centre.
We’d half expected that Doris would forcibly demand to spend the night in the ranger station with us when it got dark; but wanted to avoid setting a precedent. So we were pleased that after a half-hearted attempt to break in she promptly climbed onto the roof and went to sleep.
The whole night passed uneventfully and we were woken at first light by Doris knocking on the door again.
The morning after
Doris was in exceptionally high spirits and showed no signs of distress or fatigue from her night out, in fact it was our intention to take her straight back to the centre as soon as we woke, however Doris seemed intent on staying in the jungle even taking to the trees of her own volition.
So after feeding her on her new platform that the Orangutan Release group in September built we spent most of the morning letting her climb before bringing her back in.
On the 10th of November we plan to bring her back out to the ranger station with the centre’s baby orangutan, Ting San and Mamu, and keep the three of them there for a one week trial before eventually releasing them all there under 24 hour supervision.
We can confirm that Doris does not have vertigo
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.
In the orangutan conservation world, it is generally a rule of thumb that only baby orangutans should be rehabilitated back into the wild. Teenage orangutans are considered to old and unmanageable for the rehabilitation process. We have experts in the past that have failed to achieve anything with our very own teenager, Doris. Doris was so humanised after years of captivity that rehabilitation was considered impossible by many. One expert even diagnosed her with vertigo!
However, on Wednesday 22nd of October 2009, a date etched into orangutan conservation history, the Great Orangutan Project’s very own Leo Biddle, along with Sarawak Forestry’s courageous keepers, Hillary and Eddie, managed to spend a night in the forest at the ‘Piers Mott’ Ranger Station with teenage orangutan, Doris. Here’s the update from Leo himself:
“On Wednesday 22nd we managed to convince Doris to spend her first night ever in the jungle, at the newly completed Piers Mott Ranger Station previous volunteers have worked so hard to build.
Doris out in the jungle
For much of the last year Doris has been going out on excursions into the forest under supervision, but until Wednesday has always been brought back to the orangutan dens at night.
Unlike Ting San and Mamu, who have spent many nights out already, we have been waiting for Doris’ confidence in the forest to increase before making her take this important next step towards eventual release.
At points in her training prior we have kept her in the jungle until the light begins to fade before bringing her back in. On these occasions she has generally made it emphatically clear that she does not wish to remain in the jungle at night and Doris’ size and considerable strength are very effective at making points emphatically!
A part of this is due to fear of the unfamiliar; the jungle at night is very different to during the day with different noises and insects – indeed when we have taken previous volunteers on night walks or to camp out there, several of them have found it to be a frightening or challenging experience…
Another factor of course is a break from the routine. Captive orangutan, just like other animals including humans, can quickly become habituated to a daily regime prevalent to their confinement and despite our continuing efforts on enrichment for the last 9 years – Doris has slept at night in a cage.
When she was first taken into the jungle back in December 2007 it was a wholly new experience for her and one that took her time to adjust to; until now it would be fair to say that she enjoys her days spent in jungle training. In time we hope to persuade her that sleeping in the jungle at night can be equally enriching and rapidly become routine.
Doris seemed to be suspicious when we hoisted her over her enclosure wall much later than normal; but presented with the prospect of accompanying three of her favourite keepers into the jungle she was content to follow.
On arrival at the new station, Doris acted as though it had always been there; promptly going up to the door and even knocking!
Shortly after arriving at the station the light rapidly began to fade; aside from a few gentle shoves to remind us we really ought to be heading back and slightly more wistful stares back in the direction we had came from Doris was surprisingly relaxed at the impending night out of doors.
We later all agreed that she probably knew what we were taking her out for around the time we lowered a rope over her wall back at the centre.
We’d half expected that Doris would forcibly demand to spend the night in the ranger station with us when it got dark; but wanted to avoid setting a precedent. So we were pleased that after a half-hearted attempt to break in she promptly climbed onto the roof and went to sleep.
The whole night passed uneventfully and we were woken at first light by Doris knocking on the door again.
The morning after
Doris was in exceptionally high spirits and showed no signs of distress or fatigue from her night out, in fact it was our intention to take her straight back to the centre as soon as we woke, however Doris seemed intent on staying in the jungle even taking to the trees of her own volition.
So after feeding her on her new platform that the Orangutan Release group in September built we spent most of the morning letting her climb before bringing her back in.
On the 10th of November we plan to bring her back out to the ranger station with the centre’s baby orangutan, Ting San and Mamu, and keep the three of them there for a one week trial before eventually releasing them all there under 24 hour supervision.
We can confirm that Doris does not have vertigo
In the orangutan conservation world, it is generally a rule of thumb that only baby orangutans should be rehabilitated back into the wild. Teenage orangutans are considered to old and unmanageable for the rehabilitation process. We have experts in the past that have failed to achieve anything with our very own teenager, Doris. Doris was so humanised after years of captivity that rehabilitation was considered impossible by many. One expert even diagnosed her with vertigo!
However, on Wednesday 22nd of October 2009, a date etched into orangutan conservation history, the Great Orangutan Project’s very own Leo Biddle, along with Sarawak Forestry’s courageous keepers, Hillary and Eddie, managed to spend a night in the forest at the ‘Piers Mott’ Ranger Station with teenage orangutan, Doris. Here’s the update from Leo himself:
“On Wednesday 22nd we managed to convince Doris to spend her first night ever in the jungle, at the newly completed Piers Mott Ranger Station previous volunteers have worked so hard to build.
Doris out in the jungle
For much of the last year Doris has been going out on excursions into the forest under supervision, but until Wednesday has always been brought back to the orangutan dens at night.
Unlike Ting San and Mamu, who have spent many nights out already, we have been waiting for Doris’ confidence in the forest to increase before making her take this important next step towards eventual release.
At points in her training prior we have kept her in the jungle until the light begins to fade before bringing her back in. On these occasions she has generally made it emphatically clear that she does not wish to remain in the jungle at night and Doris’ size and considerable strength are very effective at making points emphatically!
A part of this is due to fear of the unfamiliar; the jungle at night is very different to during the day with different noises and insects – indeed when we have taken previous volunteers on night walks or to camp out there, several of them have found it to be a frightening or challenging experience…
Another factor of course is a break from the routine. Captive orangutan, just like other animals including humans, can quickly become habituated to a daily regime prevalent to their confinement and despite our continuing efforts on enrichment for the last 9 years – Doris has slept at night in a cage.
When she was first taken into the jungle back in December 2007 it was a wholly new experience for her and one that took her time to adjust to; until now it would be fair to say that she enjoys her days spent in jungle training. In time we hope to persuade her that sleeping in the jungle at night can be equally enriching and rapidly become routine.
Doris seemed to be suspicious when we hoisted her over her enclosure wall much later than normal; but presented with the prospect of accompanying three of her favourite keepers into the jungle she was content to follow.
On arrival at the new station, Doris acted as though it had always been there; promptly going up to the door and even knocking!
Shortly after arriving at the station the light rapidly began to fade; aside from a few gentle shoves to remind us we really ought to be heading back and slightly more wistful stares back in the direction we had came from Doris was surprisingly relaxed at the impending night out of doors.
We later all agreed that she probably knew what we were taking her out for around the time we lowered a rope over her wall back at the centre.
We’d half expected that Doris would forcibly demand to spend the night in the ranger station with us when it got dark; but wanted to avoid setting a precedent. So we were pleased that after a half-hearted attempt to break in she promptly climbed onto the roof and went to sleep.
The whole night passed uneventfully and we were woken at first light by Doris knocking on the door again.
The morning after
Doris was in exceptionally high spirits and showed no signs of distress or fatigue from her night out, in fact it was our intention to take her straight back to the centre as soon as we woke, however Doris seemed intent on staying in the jungle even taking to the trees of her own volition.
So after feeding her on her new platform that the Orangutan Release group in September built we spent most of the morning letting her climb before bringing her back in.
On the 10th of November we plan to bring her back out to the ranger station with the centre’s baby orangutan, Ting San and Mamu, and keep the three of them there for a one week trial before eventually releasing them all there under 24 hour supervision.
We can confirm that Doris does not have vertigo
