AS-HOPE report

Number: AS-24-G004

To observe wild orangutans in Borneo

Report: KOTERA AYAMI

Date: 2012/11/19 - 2012/11/27

For 5 days I went into the rainforest in the daytime and along the main street at nighttime as well to observe wildlife including orangutan and the environment they live in. I especially focused on observing wild orangutan and actually I could find 3 pairs of mother and child and a juvenile. I heard that each child was around 1 year old. Furthermore I could observe a pair till the mother finished reforming a nest to sleep with her child. Then I realized how they had and kept a parent-child relationship in the wild. After the observation I asked the experienced guide, who had watched the pair from another viewpoint, what they had been doing in the nest. His answer made me feel how they involved each other by doing what each individual wanted to do. Sometimes I also found some of red leaf monkeys playing on some trees, on the final day I could observe a community of red leaf monkeys which consisted of the male and some pairs of mother and child. Some children were playing with each other. Their lifestyle was utterly different from orangutans' one and I felt that observing these two on my own was meaningful. I also observe some kinds of animals like dear, flog, lizard, civet, hornbill, and so on. In the season, in this rainforest there are only a few trees which had fruits. So many wild animals gathered a big tree to get fruits. Watching them, I felt with my whole body how the environment around them and living there was. All experiences I had there were so impressive and forgettable because I recognized how fun it is to observe them and to live my life.

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