Rahayu continues to be a solitary character on Besar island at the International Animal Rescue’s orangutan rescue centre in West Kalimantan. She spends most of her time alone exploring the island and, on some occasions, she is seen to play and socialise with other orangutans in the group.
Despite her independent nature, Rahayu used to get too close to the orangutan keepers at times and she was often seen playing and foraging on the ground. Because of this undesirable behaviour, the orangutan keepers dedicated time to encourage Rahayu to stay away from people and to find food on her own. The training has shown highly promising results and Rahayu is now an expert at natural foraging. Rahayu’s favourite foods are the forest fruits that she can find growing on the island. Although she has foraged a lot on bark and termites in the past, it seems that Rahayu has become a bit fed up with them. She currently avoids eating these foods and her preference is for fresh wild fruits.
Rahayu still spends time on the ground and the orangutan keepers have been working on this behaviour with her. At night, however, Rahayu always sleeps in a nest that she makes in a tree. She is still a little lazy and although she knows how to make new nests from scratch, she usually repairs old nests abandoned by other orangutans. From another perspective, she may be using resources wisely and saving energy for what is really important—finding fresh and delicious fruits in the forest!
It is wonderful to see Rahayu improve in some areas and continue to thrive on her rehabilitation journey.
