Mary is now nine years of age and has continued to develop her forest skills whilst at Jungle School.
Independent Mary high in the canopy at Jungle School
Mary will immediately climb into the canopy to explore and forage when taken to Jungle School. She is very independent and does not seek out contact with the orangutan keepers.
Due to Mary’s confidence and independence, she has become a bit of a handful at Jungle School. She will often travel quickly away to other areas including patches of forest that are recovering from previous Jungle School sessions. BORA has three Jungle School locations and the staff periodically move the orangutans to different locations to give the forest time to recover and for new, young leaves to grow. Being the adventurous orangutan that she is, Mary will often disappear and also not want to return to her enclosure when Jungle School has finished.
As much as these issues are tricky for the orangutan keepers, it is a positive sign that Mary is very independent and confident and shows that she is progressing well in her rehabilitation. Mary is a candidate to move to a pre-release island when the space becomes available. She will likely by joined by Bonti, JoJo and Devi who are also smart and agile young female orangutans.
Mary weighs 21.6kg and likes all the food given to her when she is in her enclosure. Her favourite enrichment is sugarcane and fruit inserted into a braided root. Mary had a recent vet check-up and is in good health. She has had some dry skin and this was treated with Vitamin E.
Thank you to all of Mary’s adopters who have helped her come so far on her rehabilitation journey. It is exciting to know that Mary is getting closer to her true forest home.
