The UN’s Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) has recently announced welcome census results that indicate significantly more Mountain gorillas exist in Uganda than previously thought.

The census found a minimum of 400 Mountain gorillas living in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the location of our Great Gorilla Project, which boosts the population found in eastern Africa to an estimated 880. Approximately 780 Mountain gorillas were thought to exist previously and this rise is attributed to more accurate census techniques and actual population growth among the gorillas.

Mountain gorillas, a subspecies of the eastern lowland gorilla, live in mountain forests in only two locations in the world – Bwindi in south-west Uganda and the Virunga Massif, a range of extinct volcanoes that border the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. Their numbers had dwindled to so few in the 1980s that some experts felt they could become extinct in the 20th century, but they now receive significant protection due to the important role they play in the region’s tourist industry.

Drew McVey, species programme manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature – U.K. (WWF-UK), believes the latest increase was due to conservation efforts that had successfully engaged the local community, such as the outreach work undertaken on the Great Gorilla Projects.

"Mountain gorillas have only survived because of conservation,” McVey said. “Protected areas are better managed and resourced than they have ever been - we don't just work with the animals in the national parks, but also with the people."

“The new census offers incredibly good news for Mountain gorillas,” said GRASP coordinator Doug Cress. “But that is still a very fragile and endangered population that faces immense pressure from deforestation, human encroachment, civil wars, and disease. Now, oil exploration is threatening their habit. All the world’s Mountain gorillas live in a relatively small area of east Africa and require constant vigilance if the populations are to continue to grow.”

To help ensure this is an on-going success story, join one of next year’s Great Gorilla Project expeditions, or the Great Gorilla Project with Ian Redmond.

A young male orangutan that was surrendered by his owner to the forestry department in Ketapang, West Kalimantan is now receiving treatment and care at IAR’s rescue centre. Very little is known about his circumstances other than that he was being kept in a cage.

The orangutan’s name is Rocky and he is about one year old. He is extremely malnourished which, apart from his low body weight, is also indicated by his lack of hair, particularly on his head which is completely bald.

The infant is severely traumatised and requires constant encouragement to eat and drink. The medical team and the ’babysitters’ are caring for him around the clock to make him feel secure and build up his confidence. He is currently being looked after in the baby quarantine area where he will be given plenty of time to recover in the weeks ahead before he is introduced to the other babies.

Rocky’s arrival brings the total number of orangutans at the centre in Ketapang to 56:  of these, 37 are babies or juveniles that would still be dependent on their mothers for food and protection had they not been taken from the wild. They are all victims of the illegal trade in wildlife which makes infant orangutans highly prized as pets.

But baby orangutans stolen from their mothers in the forest face a bleak future. They are generally kept in miserable conditions, chained up or locked in cramped cages and fed on an entirely unsuitable diet which often causes illness and even death. Many others die from the infectious diseases they catch from humans.

Says Dr Karmele Llano Sanchez, Executive Director of IAR Indonesia, tells us “The number of orangutans in rehabilitation centres across Indonesia now totals more than 1,000 and they are likely to be only a small proportion of all the orangutans that are injured or displaced from their habitat. When the forest is destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, it is easier for hunters to find and shoot orangutans. These hunters kill the mother and other members of a family and take the babies to sell them into the pet trade. People who buy orangutans to keep them as pets are as culpable as those who pull the trigger on the gun.

Rocky is the latest victim of the devastating impact of deforestation, hunting and the illegal pet trade on orangutans in Indonesia. In Kalimantan and other areas of Indonesia, people often keep orangutans illegally as pets. But the word 'orangutan' means 'person of the forest' and the forest is where they belong.” 

You can help with International Animal Rescue’s fantastic work in Ketapang on our IAR Orangutan Project, and see the latest progress on the construction work here.

Some of you may have been following the recent story from International Animal Rescue (IAR) in West Borneo.

IAR's team rescued a large male orangutan that was burnt after local villagers tried to chase it out of a tree by setting it on fire. The police, forestry department and a great many other people became involved as a result of a video broadcast on Metrotv and BBC News which showed the orangutan's hair catching fire as he clung to the burning tree.

The large male orangutan entered the farmland and plantations of some villagers in Wajok Hilir, near Pontianak. They did not want to harm him but were apparently at a loss to know what to do to frighten him away. They thought that by setting fire to the tree they could scare him away but tragically the orangutan had no means of escape and himself caught fire.

The villagers called the BKSDA (forestry department) who called International Animal Rescue. The team immediately jumped into action.

When they eventually managed to dart and sedate the orangutan, he was found to be in a fairly critical condition and severely dehydrated, although the burn wounds were only first degree and all superficial.

The condition of the orangutan was monitored by IAR vet Dr Siffa. He was evaluated and it was decided that he needed to be moved to IAR's orangutan rescue clinic in Ketapang, a centre which our volunteers have played a major role in constructing.

Tragically, the orangutan died on his way to the clinic. The Great Projects team here and at IAR, with whom we work so closely through our IAR Orangutan Project, are devastated by the loss.

Karmele Llano Sanchez, Executive and Veterinary Director of International Animal Rescue Indonesia, had this to say, "Although much blame is being attached to the villagers for their misguided actions, yet again, the real culprit in this story is the palm oil industry which is destroying the forest and leaving no food or shelter for orangutans and other wildlife – and creating conflict as people and animals compete for food.”

Generally having never heard of these animals prior to arriving at Matang, most volunteers end up with quite the soft spot for binturongs by the time their work with us is done. The colloquial name for these animals is ‘bear-cat’, though being neither bears, nor cats, I’m not too sure where the logic lays in this name. They have been described by volunteers as: bear-like, cat-like, seal-like, fox-like, racoon-like, badger-like and baby-like (due to the strange, crying call they make), amongst others. They are one of those mammals that, by sharing habitat with some of the mega-fauna, have become lost along the way by charities and academics alike.

Binturongs are mammals in the family Vivirridae, and the only other animal to share this group with them is the civet, who again most people have not heard of before meeting one at Matang. They are arboreal animals, and one of only two creatures in the order Carnivora to possess a prehensile tail (the other is the kinkajou). This gives them a great advantage in the trees, as they can even hang from branches by just their tail. They are nocturnal, and omnivorous, consuming foods from insects, to fruit, to eggs. An omnivorous diet seems to be the wisest choice for residents of the Bornean jungle; though fruit is often preferred, the fruiting seasons on Borneo are far too unpredictable for an animal to subsist on just this. As a further adaptation to the irregular fruit supply, binturongs are also capable of embryonic diapause, which means they can delay implantation of a fertilised egg inside their womb until they judge conditions to be favourable for rearing offspring – quite a nifty adaptation I think.

We have had two binturongs as long term residents in our quarantine area, known as ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crazy’. They used to share an outdoor enclosure, but unfortunately they could not get on and Sleepy needed stitches on two different occasions due to Crazy’s aggression. Therefore, the only option was to separate them and sadly downgrade their accommodation. However, recently we were able to move Crazy from the quarantine area into the new clouded leopard cage.

Now, obviously clouded leopards would predate on binturongs in the wild, so when I say ‘into’, I mean into the second new cage that was built adjacent to the one currently occupied by the clouded leopard, as this was standing empty. We had to do some work to the cage wall between them, to ensure there were no gaps big enough for the clouded leopard to playfully swipe (read: tear chunks out of) at the binturong. Nonetheless, when the binturong was moved it was certainly great enrichment for the leopard, who immediately displayed stalking behaviour and paid close attention to the binturong for the rest of the day.

They soon settled though, and it was lovely to watch Crazy as he sniffed his way around the large outdoor space, numerous trees, climbing structures and a hungry leopard. It was certainly the most stimulated he has been for a while. He spent a very long time scent marking many of the structures in the cage, which is a natural behaviour of the binturongs. We suspect this animal is blind, at least in one eye, but this did not hinder him at all as he explored his new setting. He is still worthy of his name though, emitting the strange, shrill, baby/cat-like cry and displaying a kind of stalking behaviour of his own whenever humans are around. It is probably better for him now his is in an area without the constant close proximity of people.

Coming soon: Why Peter now has one less finger – apparently Aman is a trend-setter

by Natasha Beckerson

More than 10,000 years ago Lions thrived in many different continents from North to South America to Europe, Africa and Asia. Today, following climatic changes, centuries of hunting and loss of habitat they live in scattered habitats across Africa. To prevent them from becoming as rare as the tiger (their closest relative) large regions of habitat with sufficient prey need to be protected.

Last week The Great Lion Project was lucky enough to gain five more Lions at the reserve in Limpopo, South Africa. Three of which are cubs who belong to one of the females. They will be held in the ‘Boma’ enclosure for three months until they are familiar with the surroundings and are ready to join the rest of the reserve. There are currently three other lions on the reserve, two females and one male called Mbhurri who we hope will mate with the new females. In the wild, Mbhurri would most probably kill these cubs and so we have to be very careful when they are finally introduced. A massive 60-70 % of cubs die each year in the wild and so it’s always so exciting to see new arrivals and we can’t wait to watch them grow into beautiful strong adults.

Celebrations continue on the reserve as just a few weeks ago, a leopard; the most secretive and elusive of all large carnivores was collared successfully. He is only young and has not yet established a territory, which makes tracking him very hard sometimes. However, we are all very excited to follow him and see how things will work out! Hopefully this will be the start of something wonderful to come. In the wild you’re lucky to even catch a glimpse of one and if he leads us to a female then soon enough then we may even get the chance to see some leopard cubs too!

On her 1 month anniversary of freedom, Ting San was spotted. We have been taking daily feeds into the jungle for her, but were starting to get concerned as the food was never getting eaten. She took off into a different area than where Ghanti and son have set up residence, which wasn’t really surprising as she is not the most sociable of orang-utans. She headed off in the direction of the new ranger station we are building, which is on the trail to the dam. However, it is clear now that she travelled quite a bit further than this.

Many past volunteers will have spent a day at the glorious waterfall in Kubah National Park. Clearly Ting San has heard that this is a beautiful place to visit, and it is here that she was photographed by a rather surprised tourist. Thankfully, it was a very ethically-minded tourist, who kept her distance and expressed concern at the orang-utan’s evident lack of fear of people, recognising that this would not serve her well in the long run if she continued to hang around a tourist area. She none-the-less managed to capture some great photographs of her (posted to this group), leaving no doubt that it is indeed Ting San.

It looks as though she has lost a little weight, but this is no bad thing for any of the orangs at Matang to go through, as they are certainly all carrying some extra pounds! It is very encouraging that she has spent a month now in the forest here and has managed to feed herself. It is also encouraging that she decided to move a good distance away from the centre – although it’s caused us moments of concern, it’s a reflection of her independence that she did not seek to remain close to the human company she is so used to now. However, that said it is not an ideal place for her to get too comfortable – the majority of tourists will not keep their distance, and no doubt before long she will be offered to share their food and/or pose for photos with them. This obviously increases the risk of zoonosis, and increases the chance that a tourist will behave inappropriately, leading to a bite.

The keepers have been trekking through the jungle each day since to try to get a sighting, and to offer her some food if she wants it. The aim over the coming days and weeks will be to get her to move just a bit closer to Matang and away from the tourist area in Kubah, closer to a feeding platform where she can find sustenance if she needs it. She is the first of a few orang-utan we hope to release in that area over the next year, though we cannot take credit for her move into the semi-wild. Our thanks go out to Ghanti, who allowed us to forego the administrative process and logistical planning of a release, and just do it the orang-utan way.

We had a bit of a surprise during sun bear husbandry yesterday (Fri 13th) when Ting San came walking out of the jungle and inspected our cleaning work in the night dens of the sun bears on the hill. She was very casual in her exploring, as if she was trying to look inconspicuous and as if she belonged there. It was tempting to give her a broom and point out the areas we hadn't attended to yet. However, she continued on her way and walked back off into the jungle, followed swiftly by Richard and Apai Jugah.

It transpired that Ghanti, apparently tired of only having her son for company in the jungle, had visited the large orang-utan enclosure that morning and assisted the escape of both Ting San and Ali by offering them a branch carefully broken and lowered into the enclosure to pull them out. The youngsters literally jumped at the opportunity for a day's outing.

Ali spent most of the day in Ghanti's company, close to the centre at the feeding platform area. We were able to observe them, and it was a pleasure to do so. It was the first time we have seen Ghanti's son separate significantly from his mum - for most of the time he was metres away from her wrestling with Ali. Ghanti was keeping a careful eye on the duo from below, but she was clearly uninterested in joining in with the rough and tumble play. She was quite determined to keep Ali out as a play-mate for her son for the day though, as she aggressively chased the orang-utan keeper, Eddie, out of the feeding platform area when he dared to approach Ali to tempt him back.

At the end of the day around 4pm, Ali was more than happy to come back into the orang-utan dens with his favourite keeper, Apai Sandi, and it looked as though Ghanti had enough of him by then too! One child is clearly more than enough for an orang-utan mother. It was very nice of her to bring the youngsters out for the day though. Ting San remains at large.

As of Monday (16^th), the four youngest orang-utan are off into the jungle for a 10 day stretch, which will be the longest period of time they have spent in the jungle. So Ali will be back in the forest then, though this time in a slightly more controlled, supervised way! It will be great if Ting San will stay out until the team head out to the ranger station on Monday, and she can also stay with the orangs for the duration of their rehabilitation training this month. Ting San has missed out on previous trips as she has bitten a couple of the keepers and become a little hard to manage safely. However, if she is in the forest already, it should be a simple matter of providing food for her and providing a safety net should she need to use it.

Enjoy the accompanying photos of Ali, Ghanti and baby sharing each other’s company in the forest.

Little Fat Bear arrived at Matang in April 2010, and quickly elevated to the status of my favourite bear. Partly this is because she is exceptionally cute – her name describes her perfectly and though she is full adult, she is the smallest sun bear I have seen. The Bornean sub-species is smaller than the sun bears of mainland South East Asia anyway, and sun bears are of course the smallest of all the bears, but LFB, with her short legs and dumpy stature, takes ‘small bear’ to another level. Needless to say, she is also cutely rotund. However, it is her personality more than her appearance that stole my heart.

Up until April 2010, LFB had not known a happy existence. For 16 years she had been kept in a small, bare cage with a concrete floor. No enrichment, no variety, high stress and high stereotypic frequency characterised these years. 16 years is easy to say, but think about what you were doing and where you were 16 years ago, and all that you have done in the intervening years. LFB was simply standing in a cage for all that time. Her teeth have also been clipped, a horribly painful process carried out no doubt to ensure she would be a safer pet as a cub (I have often wondered why people do not opt for a goldfish, should they want a safe pet, rather than a bear). You would expect a bear with this background at age 20+ to be a broken individual, massively stressed with little in their behavioural repertoire other than pacing backwards and forwards.

However, this bear soon revealed that she retained many natural behaviours – in her naturalistic, outdoor enclosure she excelled at foraging, climbing, digging, tearing into wood for termites, and was even seen sleeping up in the trees one afternoon, a natural behaviour not expressed by any of our other captive bears, from whom we have been trying to elicit natural behaviour for years! She proved very adept at opening internal cage doors, and would often let herself and fellow bears out of their individual cages to explore the whole night-den area. She has such a calm, insatiable curiosity, and it still amazes me that she did not lose this through the years she was kept in such poor captivity. Her instances of stereotypy are minimal – when she finishes foraging and eating, she prefers instead to lean against a comfortable tree and take a nap. It is always a pleasure to observe her.

A few weeks ago, two of the keepers were talking to each other in front of the quarantine area, when a hairy mammal passed between them. ‘How did that dog get in here?’ one questioned (they are known as ‘dog bears’ with good reason). ‘IT’S A BEAR!’ the other replied – this is the actual exchange that took place. It transpired that while climbing a tree that was a little small, LFB climbed high enough to pull the tree over far enough to reach a tree on the outside of the enclosure wall. She then went for a calm, curious wander past George and Peter’s cages (who were not at all calm), past the hornbills and gibbons, and back down the road to the small bridge. Though slowly being surrounded by keepers, she showed no panic, and seemed pleased that they had bought a jar of honey with them (they are also known as the ‘honey bears’, also with good reason!). She happily followed the honey trail being laid on the floor, and wandered into an as-yet unoccupied gibbon cage. Here she was content to explore, much to the neighbouring gibbons’ displeasure and panic, and lick up every drop of honey that had been spilled to tempt her. She was then encouraged into a transport cage by the keepers and wheeled back where she came from.

All in all, it was a rather enriching afternoon for her, and for all the keepers involved of course. Enjoy the accompanying photos.

This month finally saw the clouded leopard get her upgrade into the long-awaited new enclosure that has been under construction for the last 8 months. Though two cages have been completed for the two individuals that were surrendered to Matang, tragically the youngest of the two died weeks ago. Both individuals suffered from seizures around Christmas time, which were attributed to acute hyponatraemia – an electrolyte disturbance in which the sodium concentration in the serum is lower than normal, generally caused by excessive fluid consumption. With extensive veterinary treatment, they did recover from this, though the youngest did not fully. Unfortunately he eventually died last month.  We have not seen hyponatraemia in any of our animals prior to this, and the severity of the condition, which left both cats in a coma for a short while, led us to think that we may lose both of them. It was very sad to lose the youngest one, just weeks before he got to try out his new living space. It does mean that the older female can now spread out through both enclosures, and enjoy a more substantial upgrade in living space.

The transfer went very smoothly, though when the leopard was released into the outdoor space she made directly for the entrance to the night den area. As we suspected, she appeared quite daunted by the enclosure and was keen to enter a space more akin in size to the cage she had been kept in. This discomfort towards the enclosure highlights the difficulties in releasing animals that have been kept captive; we tend to assume that an animal will be grateful and happy (anthropomorphic though it is) to be moved from a small cage to a large enclosure, or from an enclosure/cage to the wild but the move into larger space is often highly stressful for an animal that has become accustomed to small, secure areas.  

We kept a close eye on her over the following days, and she actually adapted very quickly to the new space, to the extent that we had to restrict her to the night den on a couple of occasions due to her immense excitement, and her insistence on exploring every tree trunk and every corner, at high speed, was causing her to massively overheat! I am looking forward to trying out different enrichment devices for her, and seeing her make the most of the athletic prowess possessed by these cats – they are the best tree climbers of the felines, with huge paws and a very long tail serving as adaptations to aid their arboreal lifestyle. They can also jump incredibly high; there have been no opportunities yet for this clouded leopard to express these natural behaviours, so it is very exciting and rewarding to observe her in a space with the capacity for climbing, hunting, jumping, scent marking, prowling and of course, sleeping, which is an important past time for all cats. Now she has the means to sleep off of the ground on branches and in trees, which must be much more comfortable for her, and is much more in tune with natural behaviour.

Our huge thanks go out to all volunteers that chipped in to help this building project, from the first bricks that were wheel-barrowed to the site to the enrichment structures that were built inside to finish the area last month. Many of you developed a soft spot for this beautiful creature, and I hope that some of you will return to see her in her new environment in the future. For now though, you will have to make do with the photographs posted to accompany this blog!

By Natasha Beckerson