meet our infant orangutan orphans

Name: elisa
Sex: female
Arrival date: 23rd March, 2004
On arrival: 6.4 kg
Approximate age: 1.5 years (on arrival)
Previous history: Brought in by two men from Pegatan

Elisa was brought to Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in a little wooden cage, by two men demanding payment for her. She was a small, but healthy looking orangutan with an appetite for bananas. On closer inspection, the staff noticed a bullet lodged under her jaw. Baby orangutans are sometimes injured or even killed when their mother’s are shot from the tree tops. After much discussion, the two men agreed to leave her at Nyaru Menteng overnight without payment, but never returned. Elisa is a very independent infant. She is the first to climb into the trees in the morning and likes to play alone. Elisa has well developed forest skills. She can find her own forest fruit, samples an assortment of leaves and makes her own nests. Not that she uses these for her naps however. Elisa prefers to rest in the hammock where she can snuggle up next to the babysitter. Once in the hammock, she considers it ‘hers’, and refuses to share the hammock or the attention of the babysitter with any of the other orphans.