Chasing Orangutans in Borneo

Last September when Bob and my son Jeff were unloading the U-Haul truck, my job was to determine which boxes should go to storage and which should stay here. When Jeff showed me the box marked “Travel Journals,” I didn’t hesitate. I want those here. During my years of international travel, I wrote copious notes in little black journals, trying to capture every detail of the place and experience. Even then I knew that a day would come when I could no longer travel ‘off the beaten path,’ and when that day came, the journals would help me to relive a lifetime of adventures.

Chasing Orangutans in Borneo

In 1990, my ex-husband and I joined an Earthwatch team as volunteers to aid Dr. Birute Galdikas in orangutan research and rehabilitation at Camp Leakey, Indonesian Borneo. As we prepared to leave on our trip, my parents drove from their home in Roseburg just to say goodbye. It was the first time they had ever done that. My mother was especially worried that this could be a dangerous undertaking and I might not make it back. She liked the orangutans… it was the leeches and snakes that put her off.

From the Journal
August 1990

Today is search day where teams will fan out into the Tanjung Puting Reserve to find wild orangutans to follow for the next week… two Earthwatch members and one Dayak assistant makes up each team. Jay (ex-husband) and I are assigned to Mr. Uki (it is proper Indonesian etiquette to address everyone by their title such as Mr. Mrs. or Dr.), who tells us he is 25-years old, unmarried and has two sisters also working at Camp Leakey. The assignments were given out last night after dinner. No lunch is served at camp, so we take rice from breakfast with us to eat on the trail. Each of us carries a daypack with rain poncho, string hammock, water, flashlight, bug repellent, sun block, first aid kit, compass, binoculars, and extra food. We wear two pair of socks; the outer pair being men’s nylon knee-hi dress socks that we pull over the cuffs of our long-legged pants. This is for protection from leeches. We liberally spray our shoes, socks and pant legs with 100% Deet. Long sleeved shirts and a hat or bandanna are also worn. I find that a bandanna tied around my forehead works best for me because it helps to keep the sweat from getting into my eyes.

All team members and assistants meet at 10 AM. We walk single-file up a trail into the tropical rainforest, with individual teams peeling off onto other trails as they come to them. Jay, Mr. Uki, and I remain on Toges Trail, and at about 11 o’clock we hear a knocking kind of noise off to the left. Mr. Uki stops. We stand still, listening. Mr. Uki says, “It is an orangutan “barking.” He leaves us temporarily to investigate, comes back and tells us that it is a wild orangutan named Priscilla and her infant. It seems that we have found a wild orangutan to follow.

We leave the trail and plunge into the forest. Priscilla slowly moves through the upper reaches of the trees. When moving between the trees the infant clings tightly to Mom, then plays or eats by itself while in a tree. As we follow, the pattern is one of eating, resting, and moving. When Priscilla finds a tree she likes, and settles into it for a while, we string up our hammocks and rest. But if she decides to move, we have to quickly take down our hammocks, stow everything into our daypacks, and continue to follow her.

At about 3:30 this leisurely pattern suddenly ends when we hear crashing sounds coming through the trees to our left. “Is it another orangutan?” we ask Mr. Uki. He nods his head, “Yes, maybe two.” We hear human voices too, and then see Mr. Bill and Mrs. Rachel with their assistant. They are following two orangutans. Priscilla, who has been quietly eating leaves, stops and watches as the new orangutans approach. She pulls her infant close to her and moves a couple of trees away. Another orangutan appears, followed by Dr. Ann, Mrs. Margaret and their assistant. Now the three orangutans converge towards Priscilla who keeps moving away. The orangutan pair (who we later learned were sub-adult males) scuffle with each other in a tree. There is such a wild commotion… nine people on the ground – each trying to keep track of “their” orangutan and write accurate observation notes – and five orangutans to observe in various trees.

The male orangutan that loses in the scuffle decides to take his frustration out on Priscilla, and begins to chase her… with us madly in pursuit trying to keep up. Through the forest, over logs, between thick undergrowth of jungle vines. We follow our assistant who follows Priscilla… she, not us, is his priority. Trying to rid herself of her male pursuer, Priscilla drops lower and lower in the trees, once dropping to the ground, which is unusual for the normally arboreal orangutan. After a 13-minute chase, the male gives up and leaves the area. Calm returns, but what an exhilarating experience. In that moment we quite forgot all about leeches, mosquitoes, toxic plants, snakes, and the unbearable heat. Only the chase was important.

In that relative calm, we continue to follow Priscilla until she builds her treetop nest of leaves and twigs. Mr. Uki marks the spot so we can return in the morning to follow her and her infant for another day. We return to camp in time for a cooling dip in the Putting River.

Dr. Galdikas questioned us concerning the unusual orangutan behavior that we observed today. Orangutans are normally solitary and shy. She asked us to write a complete account of what we saw.

To be continued...

(Photo by Rhett Butler)