This month we focus our attention on orangutan mother Betli; a well-known face to our field staff in the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, Indonesian Borneo.
This tropical forest is home to around 600 critically endangered orangutans, roughly half of which are reintroduced having been ex-captive or rescued. From our forest camps we monitor as many of these great apes as possible to ensure that the population remains healthy, and our team recently observed that Betli has wonderfully added one more precious infant to the growing number of orangutans in the Reserve.
Betli and her new baby take a rest on the forest floor.
As an entirely wild orangutan her exact age is unknown, but it’s thought that Betli was around 7 years of age when first sighted by our field team at Camp Buluh in 2009. Since then she has gone on to care for three other infants, with her newest arrival her fourth offspring.
Berlane is Betli’s oldest son, and is still observed from time to time foraging in the forest.
Like many new orangutan mother’s, Betli is protective of her baby. This means that although some magnificent photos have been taken of the pair, our team haven’t yet been able to identify the sex of the infant. Most importantly Betli and her young appear healthy and we look forward to keeping an eye on their progress in the forest.
Following Betli’s and Passion’s latest arrivals, it appears we will end 2020 having recorded an astonishing seven orangutan births in just 12 months. This number of orangutan arrivals in such a short space of time has never been witnessed before by our team, and emphasizes how important this protected habitat is for the future of this critically endangered species.
