Rahayu currently lives on Besar island with 11 other orangutans at the International Animal Rescue’s orangutan rescue centre in West Kalimantan.
Rahayu is now 13 years old. She recently weighed in at 33.8kg and is growing well. Rahayu has developed her jungle skills further over the last six months. She has significantly reduced the time she spends on the ground and has spent a lot of her time in the canopy. Rahayu also began to actively forage for food around the island. She was seen looking for some forest fruit with her friends around the forest several times.
Although Rahayu enjoys the company of other orangutans, she is a quiet character. Rahayu socializes with everyone on Besar island, and she has no difficulty in making friends. She is also happy to spend time on her own. Unfortunately, due to her eye condition which makes it more difficult for her to find enough food on her own, Rahayu is still dependent on the provisioned food. Like most other orangutans, Rahayu loves to eat corn and sweet potatoes. The orangutan keepers always try to motivate the orangutans to eat a large variety of vegetables to enhance their diets- just like human parents often need to do with their own children.
Together with all the orangutans on Besar island, Rahayu receives new enrichment every day. The type of enrichment varies. On of Rahayu’s favourites is banana or papaya stems filled with various foods such as seeds, nuts, oatmeal and sometimes termites and other insects.
Rahayu is still a bit lazy when it comes to nest building. Although she knows how to build new nests from scratch, she prefers to repair and upgrade old nests to sleep in. Rahayu has, however, increased the times that she spends building new nests now and we hope as she grows older that she can become even more independent in this area.
We are so proud of the progress that beautiful Rahayu has made despite the challenges she faces.
