Camp Gemini is one of five post-release monitoring camps within the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve and yet this single site has seen the births of five Bornean orangutans over the past 18 months! In recent times our team in the forest have spotted Pauline, Maya, Passion, Ilik, and Sheila with newborns- an incredible feat when we consider that these critically endangered primates usually only give birth to a few offspring in their lifetime!
It seems however that the healthy population of over 600 orangutans in this protected habitat is continuing to grow. Our team are delighted to reveal that reintroduced orangutans Max and Camelia are now pregnant, so we may have new arrivals to look forward to!
Max and her first offspring.
Having previously been rescued, female orangutan Max was introduced to the Reserve in 2003 with her mother Mantra who was estimated to be around 15 years old at the time. The pair appeared to have settled nicely into their new safe surroundings, and once she had gained independence from her mother, Max soon reached an age when she could start a family of her own.
As Max is so comfortable around our staff, we were able to have front-row seats to the birth of her infant Monti back in August 2018. Our team felt incredibly privileged to witness the intimate first moments between an orangutan and her newborn in the wild.
If you look closely, you can even see the umbilical cord attaching mother to infant.
Sadly however, at some point during their first couple of years together, Max lost her newborn Monti. It’s unclear whether Max’s infant passed away or became separated in some way, but their story is one that mirrors fellow orangutan Camelia with her offspring too.
Camelia was released into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve in February 2006 at a young age and quickly made herself at home in the forest. On her journey to adulthood, our team would spot Camelia foraging for food around camp from time to time until 2016 when we finally saw a little infant, named Charles, clinging to her side.
Camelia and Charles.
In December of last year, our monitoring staff first saw Camelia at Camp Gemini without Charles in-tow. Sadly since then the young orangutan has not been observed during Camelia’s visits to camp. Regretfully it seems that Charles may have followed the same fate as Max’s infant Monti, meaning both of these mothers have previously lost their young.
Like other wildlife species, it’s not uncommon for female orangutans to lose their offspring, especially as first-time mothers. The rainforest, after all, is home to a number of dangers to young orangutans but nonetheless we are very excited to keep up to date on Max’s and Camelia’s progress and soon welcome two more infants to the growing population of orangutans in this forest.
By protecting their forest, orangutans like Max have the best opportunity to reproduce in this Reserve.
