ORANG UTAN EXPERIENCES
6th March 09 – 20th March 2009
&
ZOO ASSISTANT
6th March 09 – 31st March 2009

TAIPING ZOO

By: Ili Dayana Sudirman

The Volunteers




From left:
- David Langdon (24, England, OUE)
- John Dennet (24, England, ZA)
- Kimberly Ellison (23, England, ZA)
- Emily Bowman (22, England, OUE)
- Sian Hutchby (20, England, ZA)
- Anne Oestherheld (22, German, OUE)
- Katrin Lahmer (22, German, OUE)

 This Month’s Activity

March 2009 was full of fun. All the volunteers got along very well and worked hard on each task given. For the OE program, routine husbandry work and enrichments for the great apes were carried out as usual with a bit more emphasis on the Chimpanzees. This month the chimps are stressed because of the mating phase: there are 5 females and only 1 male! By giving them lots more enrichment in the form of frozen fruits, the chimps’ attentions were distracted away from fighting over mating turns. Meanwhile, for the Orangutans, everything is as usual; cool, steady and relaxed. The orangutans are so calm we think they are monks; meditating! Wasabi was so happy to get 2 new boy-volunteer-friends (Dave and John) that she almost ignored the other girls and me!. We gave her lots of leaves and flowers to play with and eat. Then, later on everyone took turns to play with her while observing her behavior as well. Wasabi is so energetic that after everyone has done their part in turn, she sits there with sparkling eyes for another round of play chase and tickle! It seems as though what she really need is not another puzzle feeder or ice block but a friend as a playmate.

The ZA volunteers did not missed out on the fun time spent with Wasabi because they worked at other sections during the morning doing husbandry work and later joined the OE after lunch for enrichments. The ZA volunteers; John, Kim and Sian worked at a few sections: chimpanzees, elephants, tapirs and hippopotamus, savannah, vet clinic, primate section and sun bears. They enjoyed working with the sun bears the most. Other than that, all our volunteers participated on helping the Zoo transfer flamingoes to a new exhibit. Before releasing them to their new enclosure, we collected a f
some data (microchip number, length of their legs and their DNA sample from feathers) for the Wildlife Department/ PERHILITAN in determining whether the lengths of their legs are influenced by their gender. The flamingoes were tagged and given de-worming tablets as well.

Project Progress

During this month we collected a data through observing Wasabi; the 6 years old female Bornean orangutan. Emily Bowman helped us out because she has experience in observing animal behavior and collecting data. I have the hard copy of our observation data and later on will transfer it to Leo for futher discussion. Our main concern is Wasabi have been repeatedly regurgitating/ reindigesting for more than 3 months. At other section, volunteers enjoyed scrubbing the sun bear cage floor and walls for 2 days straight. They felt satisfied looking at the moss free floor and hope that the bears appreciate it as well. This month was actually the first month we had the opportunity to work with the sun bears and hopefully we can continue our effort here through husbandry work and enrichments activities.

Volunteers Feedback

The volunteers were very satisfied with their scrubbing work at the sun bear cages. They were actually hoping that they had more time to spend there working on cleaning the cages, make the cages a bit brighter and pleasant. The best part was when we were scrubbing enthusiastically; Jothee the sun bear zoo keeper joins us! It’s a really good thing when the zookeepers spend time with volunteers and show their effort. It is also a touching ending for the Zoo Assistant volunteers because they felt really accepted there.

Other News

Zoo Taiping’s tiger cubs are doing well and this month we got to pet them!It was an invitation from the zoo keeper himself and we did not take any pictures (not to exploit the cute cuddly cubs).

Labels: orangutan volunteers, sunbears, volunteer with orangutans