Male Baby Staring
Kalimantan, Indonesia
© 2000 Christine Krieg
This was one was just hanging
off a branch looking wistfully at the other babies. It looked so fragile
at this moment that I just wanted to cuddle it. That of course is the
one thing that is not allowed at Tanjung Puting National Park. Besides
the danger of spreading disease that these young animals are not able
to fight, there is the bonding issue.
These animals, just like humans, need to form a permanent physical and
emotional bond in order to survive and thrive in their development. Park
rangers provide part of that important bond, but the most important bond
is with another orangutan. As bonds with mature females are difficult
to establish for a myriad of reasons, orphaned orangutans are always in
groups of two or three. When the bond is prematurely broken the other
infant will almost always die.