At the end of August, we, the Post-Release Monitoring (PRM) team from Camp Lesik in the Kehje Sewen Forest, East Kalimantan, conducted routine orangutan patrols along two transects: Transect Ariyo-Marzuki and Transect Aldrin.

With the rain pouring down on us, we descended Transect Marzuki. We considered returning to camp not long into the trek, worried that the Pehpan River might overflow. But by the time we had reached Transect Aldrin, the rain had stopped. We carried on with our patrol and soon received a call on our walkie-talkie. The team back at camp had made contact to report the presence of Hamzah, with another unidentified orangutan nearby. We immediately rushed back to camp!

Upon arrival at camp, we immediately prepared our observation equipment: datasheets, cameras, and a GPS. One of our team members was able to match the appearance of the unidentified orangutan with the morphological database we had and discovered that the orangutan in question was Bungan. We released Bungan in the forest in 2017 and last year had to translocate her far away after she damaged our facilities and stole supplies from Camp Nles Mamse in the southern side of the Kehje Sewen Forest.

Somehow, Bungan had managed to cross back and met up with Hamzah. Not too long ago, Hamzah sadly had to part ways with Bong, who was moved to Muara Soh. When Bong was moved away, Hamzah appeared displeased and he disappeared into the forest as soon as she was out of sight.

Read also: HAMZAH AND BONG PART WAYS

Based on our observations, it is evident that Hamzah and Bungan have a connection and enjoy spending time together. When we tried to approach Bungan for a closer look, Hamzah responded quickly and followed her wherever she moved to. He seemed like he did not want to lose track of his newest female companion. This was different behaviour from what Hamzah had displayed when with Bong, as he did not follow her as intensely or keep such a close eye on her.

We sincerely hope that the closeness between Hamzah and Bungan will lead to a new birth, contributing to an increase in the orangutan population in the Kehje Sewen Forest!

Text by: PRM Team in Camp Lesik, Kehje Sewen Forest, East Kalimantan