This report is my last report of my volunteer activities during this period. In this occasion I would like to inform you the latest news about Tanjung Puting National Park. As usual I will report of the Orangutan babies at the first station Tanjung Harapan , Pondok Tanggui and also in Camp Leakey. During my third assignment as the a volunteer of Friends of National Parks Foundation, I am not just doing my veterinarian job but also teaching English. I am teaching the villagers at Tanjung Harapan Village especially the Elementary School. And also in this report I would like to ask your help to continue asking our government to stop the illegal logging and also illegal mining in Tanjung Puting National Park.

Here is my report in detail.

Tanjung Harapan

The six babies and one of the adult female Orangutans in this station in general are in a good shape. As I have mentioned in my previous report about the new Orangutan who came to this station on August 26 , 2000. Her name is Lady who is now about two and half years old. She is in good condition and it is seems like she is getting used to her new environment. In the morning after the feeding time Lady and Adung, the youngest baby in this station ( 1 year old) usually goes to the trees around the station and tries to climb. Most of the time they spend about 1-2 hours climbing and playing . Even though Lady is not too good in climbing but she looks better than the first time when she came to this station. Now she can walk on the ground ( not crawling anymore ) , climbing the trees around the station and start to taste the leaves and the fruits and flowers that she can get to in the trees. After one and half months, she became used to the food that we give to her and hopefully she doesn't need any human food anymore.

At the moment we still keep Lady and Adung in the house at night. They sleep inside the house together and during the day, they stay in the small cage in front of the house after they finished their games . The big cage is still under renovation by JIS ( Jakarta International School) help. We look forward to the cage hopefully ready for the babies soon.

Alui is joining Nyoman , Bonzen and Yuyun again. They come and go to the forest and the first station. They come to the station for feeding time or sleep in the cage behind the clinic. They usually come to the station once every two days or so, and they always sleep together. If they come to the station, in the next morning after feeding time they go to the forest to explore their natural life. All of them are in good condition.

Yuyun got a small wound on her foot, I am sure that was caused by the other babies (Nyoman and Bonzen) when they were playing. Alui sometimes still has diarrhea. I suspect that is caused by her adaptation process with the forest food. She follows Nyoman, Bonzen to the forest but sometimes he goes with Yuyun. Nyoman and Bonzen are in their best condition that I ever know since I joined the volunteer activities in 1998.

Davida and her son David only come to the station occasionally.

Started from September, I am teaching the students from Tanjung Harapan Village which is situated just across the river from the first station. They are from the fourth to sixth grade of elementary school. I had asked the principal to allow me to teach their students the English lesson, and he agreed with my idea and there we were studying English lessons. On October 11th, they had done their test and the result is there are only 25% of them interested in English. Next month there will be somebody else to teach them. They will be taught by one of the rangers or our new volunteer, Mr Ngurah who is a Biologist. I hope the students can learn English more and more and I hope they have an opportunity to practise it with the tourists who come to the park or to their village.

Pondok Tanggui

From my observation to this station and the information that I got from the rangers and the boat crew, there is nothing special happening with the Orangutans in this station. Last week I have been informed that Michael the Gibbon was missing from the station for 5 days. It makes us worry because he had never been away from the station for that long. The rangers tried to find him but they could not find him. But after 5 days he came to the station again by himself.

In this station we still have the illegal logging activities not far away and one can hear the chain saws.

Camp Leakey

The rangers at this station have given Tutu's baby the name Thomas. We don't know yet whether the baby is male or female. Thomas is two months old.

Princess gets some wound in her head and I came to this station to treat her but no Princess that day. Then I was told by the rangers her wound was getting better, but I still told them to treat her again with antibiotic cream to prevent her wound from secondary infection. The other adult female Orangutans are all ok.

This month we received a lot of donations from visitors who came to the park and to the village. Some of the donations went to the village directly especially the donations for the school. Some of it is being kept at the first station such as the medical supply. In this good occasion I would like to thank all the donators who are very kind and generous to support our activities in the park.

Regarding the illegal logging and mining activities I am really sorry to tell you that it is still happening in the park. When I write this report I see a lot of wood being pulled down from the park through Sekonyer River and this is happening everyday. To make our government aware about this critical situation once again, please help us to stop this thing by sending a letter to our government especially to the Ministry of Forestry Department and our President. We hope that your letter will make them take the action to stop it.

Thank you for keep supporting us.

Scincerely yours,

Drh I Made Widana
FNPF Volunteer

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