Long And Arief The Orangutans Have Been Spotted In The Wild - Mother And Adopted Son Are Doing Well!

Posted by Connor Whelan on 20th Jun 2017

Way back in September of 2015 we brought you the story of five orangutans which were being released from the Samboja Lestari Orangutan Sanctuary in Borneo. Now we’re not expecting you to remember that far back so take a look at this flashback blog talking you through the release! Today however we have even more amazing news as the mother and adopted baby pairing of Long and Arief have been spotted in the forests in the local area!

For anyone who doesn’t remember the story of Long and Arief, the two found each other completely by accident one day at the Samboja Lestari Orangutan Sanctuary. Long, an adult female orangutan, moved away from her group into an area of the forest she had never been in before. Completely by chance she strolled into the area used for Forest School 1 where Arief was playing at the time, and to everyone’s surprise Long picked up Arief and carried him off in her arms. The two have become inseparable ever since.

Recently though the post-release monitoring team at Samboja picked up on the signal for the two orangutans and spotted the pair relaxing up in a tree.

Long was still doting over Arief just as she had done ever since she took the young ape under her wing. On the day of observation both orangutans spent a lot of time in the trees, only occasionally coming down to feed on shoots and forage for termites in old logs.

Both orangutans looked to be in perfect health, and the team even managed to see Long attempting to teach Arief how to best forage for food. This sighting shows how well the rehabilitation programme at Samboja is working and that the hard work volunteers are putting in does pay off in abundance. If you would like to be part of the team of volunteers that helps to make a difference to the lives of the orangutans at the sanctuary then take a look here for availability.

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