Baby rescued from pet trade

New Member of the Matang Family.

On Tuesday 6th February Keith, our residet primate expert in Borneo, headed with John Colam, a member of staff with the authorities, to Sibu, about 7 hours drive from Matang Wildlife Centre to collect an orphan orangutan.
The only details we were given were that police had raided the house of a murder suspect and who had fled when they entered, but they found a tiny orangutan in a small box in the house. We were told that he was a male and weighed 2kg so we were expecting a very frail and frightened baby. He had been cared for by a Forestry worker for a week, and had been fed bananas and condensed (sweet) milk straight from the tin…not a very healthy diet!

The journey home was over 7 hours and the baby was very restless and active. ‘He’ turned out to be a 'she' and weighed in at 6kg and we estimate that she was a bit over a year, having a full set of teeth.


The first night she was a bit timid but took to a bottle of baby milk easily and snuggled up to us for comfort. Luckily we were able to get a large crate for her to live in our house which was very lucky. We had been expecting a tiny baby but got a bouncing active toddler!

She slept through the first night, as she still does usually, and the next day we took her to a very kind (human) doctor for a health check. She was well behaved and let him check her heart, lungs and ears. She didn’t even squeak when he took a pin prick blood sample from her foot…she seemed fascinated!

Luckily the results for malaria were negative and she was generally health apart from a very heavy worm burden which gave her a big pot belly. A few days of worm tablets (us too, just in case!) and she was fine. She was also given multi-vitamin supplements. We collected her in nappies and so we continued for a few days, but soon decided it was pointless and that her little bottom wasn’t made for them!

From day 2 we decided that she needs a routine and so she comes in her travel cage to work with us at Matang Wildlife Centre. There she has a second play cage and she is being rehabilitated, learning to climb ropes and trees in which to swing. She is remarkably accomplished!!

She has constant minders and the volunteers also help to ‘baby sit’ her during the day. Each night she comes home and settles very well to her bottle after a last play on her jungle gym (built by Keith in our garden).


We have been told that she was orphaned when her mother was shot entering a palm oil plantation…like so many others. We are giving her the best life that we can until she can be taken for walks into the jungle (with friends we hope) where she may be able to live a happy semi wild or even wild existence. But it is a very long and complicated process, remembering that orang utans stay with their mothers for around 5 years and learn everything from them, like which foods are safe to how to build a nest each night. We are very conscious of informing her admirers – from our local Malaysian neighbours who watch her play in our garden to visitors at Matang Wildlife Centre - that while she is very cute and looks a lot of fun to have around, that she is a wild animal who’s mother was shot dead while she clung on and screamed and who was intended to be smuggled into the pet trade to a life of uncertainty. We explain that we are caring for her and hope to train her to adapt to a life in the trees without relying on people.

She eats well and enjoys a huge selection of fruits and vegetables as well as leaves…she loves picking a banana leaf from our garden for herself (with a bit of help) and will try to make a nest with it too.

She is interested in most things and likes to just be around people, as she would with Mum. And the volunters from the February group fell in love with her! She doesn’t need constant entertainment; rather she will happily play with a bucket of water (supervised of course) or a cardboard box for quite some time. She usually has a couple of naps during the day.

More news soon!!!