Orangutan Diary (2007) s02e04 Episode Script

MICHAELA: This week on Orangutan Diary.
The rescue teams search for an orangutan dangerously close to a village school.
They don't understand, because they've never seen orangutan before.
MICHAELA: After his terrifying fall, Sumanto's health takes a turn for the worse.
He's still in a very critical situation at the moment.
Angelie! Angelie! MICHAELA: And Angelie, missing for over two months, walks straight through the front gate.
Don't you ever do that to us again, okay? Hmm? Don't lick on it.
(CHUCKLES) MICHAELA: Lone Droscher Nielsen runs the biggest ape rescue operation in the world.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation cares for more than 600 rescued and confiscated orangutans.
Babies in nursery needing 24-hour care.
(SNORING) Orphans in Forest School learning the skills they'll need in the wild and older orangutans who've graduated to the river islands and are almost ready for release.
Their homes are destroyed so fast, they face extinction.
But the team here do everything they can to rescue, care for, and return orangutans back to the wild.
You can never predict what will happen at the centre.
Nothing for hours, then suddenly something so unexpected it even has the staff reaching for their cameras.
She's one of our favourites.
Well, they're all favourites.
- She disappeared.
- Two months.
- Two months? - Yeah.
Two months.
MICHAELA: Angelie, missing from Forest School for two months walks straight through the front gate.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) DAVID: This is amazing.
(DAVID SPEAKING BAHSA INDONESIA) DAVID: Yeah.
Two kilometres.
So she was about two kilometres away from here.
Lone is going to be ecstatic.
They're all our favourites, but Angelie was a special favourite to everybody.
You know, she's so loving.
So, Lone is going to be so happy.
She was very sad, obviously, that somehow we'd lost Angelie.
And, to have her back, she's gonna be over the moon.
MICHAELA: The staff searched for months when Angelie disappeared from Forest School.
But where has she been? It's not long before Lone arrives.
And she immediately has her suspicions.
LONE: Hey, baby, how've you been? You've been roughening it.
The hair's really scruffy.
You've been sitting in a cage somewhere.
DAVID: Yeah, I was just wondering.
I mean, she seems a bit too well, - in relatively well condition.
- There's no way an orangutan her age would survive out in the forest by themselves for two months.
- That's just There's no need.
- DAVID: I thought it was a bit doubtful.
After we searched for a month, I came to know somebody's stolen her, somebody's got her in a cage.
Because she's just so attracted to people and she likes everybody.
She sees anybody, she goes like, "Pick me up!" Yeah? You know, even with strangers, which is not good.
I think she's just been going out towards the bridge system and somebody's seen her and thought, you know, she's a sweet pet and then taken her home.
- But she's a big star.
- Yeah.
- She's still got a bit of fat on her.
- DAVID: Yeah.
Don't you ever do that to us again, okay? (KISSING) Mmm? (GROANING) I think we need to give her a bath, though.
God, you're as heavy as ever, though.
Aren't you? MICHAELA: When she strayed too far from school it's likely that Angelie was taken as a pet and only returned when someone tired of her.
It's a stark reminder of one reason orangutans are endangered in the wild.
Out there, mothers are sometimes killed just so their babies can be taken.
Angelie's okay.
But orangutans that have spent their time with people don't always arrive in such good health.
Hi.
Hello, look at you! You're not looking good, are you? There Orangutans are so similar to humans that when they come in contact with us it can cause them all sorts of problems.
If they've spent time in captivity, they tend to be more susceptible to the sort of diseases we get, like TB and malaria, and, in fact, many of them suffer from it.
This poor little chap has got malaria right now and you can see he's looking very sorry for himself.
You want some more water? Here you go.
But it's not just their physical health that's affected.
Orangutans are sensitive and intelligent creatures.
Some of these orphans have see their own mothers killed right in front of them.
Others have been beaten, chained, or put in cages so small that they can hardly move.
So their injuries aren't just physical, some of them also are psychologically scarred.
MICHAELA: Last time on Orangutan Diary, we met Ruthie, an orangutan with real issues.
In fact, some of the babysitters found her hard to like.
She was expelled from Forest School for biting her classmates.
But she also self-harms.
You can't blame her, after her mother's death, Ruthie was ill-treated as a pet, leaving her physically and mentally scarred.
But David Irons, a G.
P.
, more used to treating human patients, has an idea.
I mean, usually they come in here traumatised and then get better and get happier.
But Ruthie, she came in here and went a little bit off her head, actually.
Which is a shame, I mean.
We'll get there but it's a good sign to see that she's actually climbing at the moment.
Because she hasn't done that for a long time.
So now it's the time to try and load on some extra weight on to her.
So we're going to try We're not force feeding her.
We're just taking her to one side and making sure that she gets the food rather than her competitors.
And we're trying to feed her on an hourly basis.
And also it's often a case of finding foods they particularly like.
And it's not always as predictable as bananas or something else like that, that we all imagine.
Sometimes you have to find something a little bit more specific.
So we're going to try anything we can do.
MICHAELA: But Dr David won't be prescribing healthy salads and nutritious fruit smoothies.
There's this local delicacy these quite thick homemade, um I guess they're probably corn chips, quite greasy and quite spicy.
And, for some reason, the orangutans seem to really like them.
So I'm going to try Ruthie with some of those.
MICHAELA: Under doctor's orders, Ruthie is now on the revolutionary crisp diet.
It's not normally recommended.
But this is a short-term measure designed to pile on the pounds and kickstart Ruthie's appetite.
But can junk food really save her? STEVE: Today the rescue team are on their way to a village school.
They've had a call from a teacher worried about an orangutan seen in the playground.
The teacher rang because, that close to the village, she was worried someone might harm or kill it.
We think of Borneo as a wilderness, but it's developing rapidly.
The orangutans here are being driven to extinction by a growing population of logging and expanding palm oil plantations.
It's very simple to point the finger and say, "You shouldn't cut down your trees.
" But, at the end of the day, we destroyed our forests centuries ago in the West with agriculture.
And the people here have the same wants and needs as us.
They want jobs.
They want security.
And some people believe that the best way of doing that is by exploiting natural resources and that means cutting down trees.
STEVE: Growing international demand for palm oil is the biggest problem.
As many as one in ten supermarket products contain it.
Bread and chocolate spread, fish fingers, crisps, lipstick and soap, the list is endless.
And now there's increasing demand for use in bio-fuels.
The West is also to blame.
As the orangutans get squeezed into smaller and smaller forests, they increasingly come into contact with people.
And, whenever that happens, they always come off worst.
Desperate orangutans damage crops and can be killed by frustrated workers.
The rescue team are concerned that the orangutan close to the school will get into trouble and need to move it out of immediate danger.
(WHOOPING) They cover an enormous area.
And rivers are the easiest way to get around.
The going may be slow, but at least it's steady.
For hours, the miles gently pass.
They can be away from their loved ones for days.
Taking only what they need and relying on the kindness of strangers for food and a place to sleep.
All in an effort to track down just one animal at risk.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) Only another 20 kilometres to go.
But, after a couple more hours, they arrive at the village.
They're about 100 kilometres from the centre.
It's taken nearly two days to get here.
You can't help feeling that everyone's expecting to see an orangutan swinging through the playground.
But it's quiet.
The kids are in lessons and it doesn't take long for word to get around.
The teacher who called them comes out to greet them.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) - Good morning.
- Good morning.
They don't understand, because they've never seen orangutan before until orangutan come to the tree.
STEVE: Even though this village is in the heart of orangutan habitat, these children have never seen one until it turned up in their playground.
The teacher gives Miko, from the medical team, the latest news.
Teacher tell me about the orangutans.
They often come into the school from the rubber plantations and make nests in the trees.
STEVE: The nest is a sure sign the orangutan spent the night here.
And the rescue team aren't short of young helpers.
But with this racket going on, is hard to imagine how they'll find something so shy and elusive.
The team have come too far to turn back now.
MICHAELA: The centre is in the heart of tropical Borneo.
It's a hot and humid place.
And, in the middle of the day, the temperature soars.
There's always plenty of work to keep the staff busy.
But for the orangutans, especially those feeling under the weather at the clinic, it's too hot to do anything except sleep.
Time for a quick siesta.
Or, if you're the recently kidnapped Angelie, some special pampering, and a cooling shower from Lone and vet Siska after her two months away.
How's that? You like that? MICHAELA: Wherever she's been, she's definitely not been getting treatment like this.
LONE: It's like her hair is like (WHOOPING) Are you gonna be mad with me now? Are you? Mmm? MICHAELA: She should be in the wild swinging through the trees, instead she's being shampooed in a wheelbarrow.
Angelie is lovingly cared for.
But because of the destruction of her forest and the killing of her mother, this once wild orangutan is a very long way from her real home.
LONE: Okay.
If we just have the feet (SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) MICHAELA: She might not look like she's just stepped out of a salon, but at least she's healthy and clean.
For now everyone is just thrilled to have her back.
STEVE: Sumanto is not doing so well.
He recently suffered a terrifying fall, bounced off a concrete wall and hit the ground hard.
The staff are still very concerned.
He was showing signs of improvement.
And David had high hopes it could be a positive turning point in Sumanto's life.
But, since then, it's all been downhill and things aren't looking good.
Everything has to be very gentle with him, because he's very easily stressed.
He was improving, we gave him a blood transfusion which helped a lot, but he's just not getting there at the moment.
There are certain changes within his blood stream which are just keep going in a negative direction.
It's a complicated situation.
I mean, we've excluded a lot of causes, but there's limits to, obviously, what you can test for and what you can actually treat in this situation.
I've had other orangutans in a similar situation.
And, so far, I guess, realistically it's been 50-50 as far as who have survived and who hasn't 'cause it is a very complicated situation.
STEVE: The medical team have tried everything they can.
Now, it's up to Sumanto.
Apart from watching and waiting, there's very little anyone can do.
The rescue team are still on the trail of the orangutan seen in the school playground.
The school is right on the edge of the jungle.
And, just a few metres in, they're already wading through flooded forest.
Given a choice, orangutans stay clear of people.
But being a fruit eater in shrinking forests means that's not always possible.
They can travel kilometres to find fruiting trees.
And as their forests are destroyed, that search for food increasingly brings then into conflict with people.
But it's still not easy to find one, especially near the noisy playground.
While they wait for things to quieten down, Miko, from the medical team, decides to practise an essential rescue skill.
A tranquilising dart is the only way to capture and move threatened orangutans.
And being a crack shot is a vital and valued part of being in the rescue team.
Regular practice is essential.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) Not bad, but tin cans don't move.
At the end of the school day, it'll quieten down.
The orangutan should return and Miko's skills will really be put to the test.
MICHAELA: At the centre, it looks like those high-calorie crisps have got Ruthie excited about eating again.
Her appetite's back and it's time to move her onto a normal orangutan diet, fruit and lots of it.
Hundreds of kilos are delivered to the centre every week.
Ruthie's doing her best to get through it single-handed.
This is great news for the babysitters and the medical team.
But how will Ruthie behave when it comes to having her dressings changed.
She still doesn't look too keen.
Last time they tried this, it took three people to hold her down.
Treating Ruthie hasn't been easy.
And this time, it's Aggus from the medical team that's drawn the short straw.
Things are looking promising.
No struggling, no biting.
It even looks like Ruthie's trying to lend a hand.
With those dressings off, she can enjoy a good scratch.
Everything seems to be healing up nicely.
And there are no new wounds.
She stopped self-harming and is avoiding fights with other orangutans.
This is really encouraging.
It wasn't long ago that Ruthie had to be restrained to be treated.
But now she's eating, her moods improving.
She's stopped fighting the world and can start fighting her infection.
She even seems to be making a few friends.
Things could finally be looking up for Ruthie.
When G.
P.
David sees her later on, she might even be allowed back into Forest School.
It's the only hope she has of getting back into the wild.
STEVE: With the school day now over, the rescue team have a better chance of finding the threatened orangutan.
But the going is increasingly hard.
Borneo's jungles are rapidly disappearing but they're still legendary.
Home to giant pythons, tiger leeches, and laced with spiny rattan that catches on skin and clothing.
As the search takes them further from the village, the team are forced to wade through deeper water.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) They found more nests in the trees, a sure sign the orangutan spent the night here.
But this one is at least a couple of days old.
Orangutans can move several kilometres in a day.
And they're faster through the trees than the rescue team through waist-deep water.
For as long as they can, the team will wade on.
But even in this small patch of forest, finding the orangutan will take all their tracking skills.
MICHAELA: At the centre, they've got them by the barrow-load.
And there's one reformed character that Dr David can't wait to catch up with.
The new diet has really improved Ruthie's health and her mood.
It's the first time David's been able to get close for ages.
She not such a wild beast as the last few months.
When she first came in, I was, sort of, her surrogate, you know.
We were very good friends at that time.
And then she got ill, and then she started getting very oddly behaved and very aggressive.
This is the first time I've had contact with her for months now.
Are you feeling better? Oh, baby.
Are you feeling better? You are, aren't you? This is a good first step, getting her like this.
Are you asleep? You've fallen asleep.
Shall we just take your temperature while we're doing that? What's that? A tickle? Like humans, when orangutans get stressed they loose their hair.
But unlike humans, they tend to be able to grow it back again when they're less stressed.
So, Ruthie has lost her hair partly because of stress, and also partly because her ex-playmate was also biting on the head quite a lot, which didn't help.
So, hopefully, in the next few weeks, we'll see a full head of hair on Ruthie.
I mean, just the fact that she's settled messing around with me here is such a big advance.
And then she'll be compliant with eating, and then she'll put on some weight and then, hopefully, we'll be able to get her integrated back into baby school soon.
Where are you off to now? MICHAELA: Little Ruthie looks older than her years.
But that will change now she's getting better.
Ruthie's off, because she spotted the ice creams.
All those crisps and she's still got room for dessert.
At least she's had her five portions of fruit today.
The new diet has really done the trick.
Ruthie should be back in Forest School before she knows it.
STEVE: After wading in waist-deep water for most of the day, the rescue team are still no closer to finding the orangutan spotted in the local school.
They hate to admit defeat, but have decided to call it a day.
But, on the way back to the village, there's an unexpected tip-off.
Someone's seen something moving through the trees on the edge of the village.
This could be it.
But, after rushing headlong through the surrounding jungle, the team finds something they never expected.
(SPEAKING BAHASA INDONESIA) (WHOOPING) There's a sense of disappointment, but the team know this is for the best.
The orangutan has obviously moved on.
It was only here while the trees were fruiting and now the foods gone, so is he.
It's great these children saw a wild orangutan.
But the team can't launch a full-scale rescue every time someone sets eyes on one.
As their forest home shrinks, it's increasingly important that orangutans and people learn to live side by side.
Lone and her team work hard to spread that message.
No just to the public, but also to the logging companies and plantation owners, encouraging them to develop more orangutan-friendly ways of working.
She'll never stop them entirely.
But working with them, she hopes that Borneo's orangutans might avoid extinction.
Although, Lone's been around long enough to know that not every story has a happy ending.
Sadly, after his terrifying fall, Sumanto has lost his fight for life.
We did everything we could do.
We gave him two blood transfusions.
A whole lot of other treatments as well.
But I think it was the combination of the fact that he was in quite a poor state to start off with and, obviously, a fall like that would actually kill most people right at the beginning.
It was just too much for him.
With like Sumanto, who has been wild, he was one of the ones that never really calmed down.
A lot of people say, "Well, why don't we just use our efforts "in trying to save the wild animals that are still left in the wild "instead of all these individuals.
"What are we going to do with them anyway?" But I do think that every life is very, very precious because, in the end, it might be the orangutans that we have here that are gonna save the species.
Because the wild orangutan are losing their habitat at an amazing rate every single day.
And, if it continues that way, what's going to be left over is what we've got here.
And I got quite a few populations here, really.
You only need 250 animals for a viable population.
So, I've got three of them here at the moment.
STEVE: Sometimes, it's hard to smile.
But watching these moments of discovery, is enough to remind Lone and her team that losing orangutans in the wild would be a tragedy.
No matter how challenging it is, they know their work could save the species from extinction.
Next time on Orangutan Diary, we meet Nody, top of the nursery, but nervous about his first day at school.
LONE: It's a very big day for them, but Nody almost looks a bit something like, "You know, like I don't really want to go.
" MICHAELA: Hercules, possibly the hairiest orangutan you'll ever meet, heads off for his annual leave.
And there's real drama when one of the technicians risks his life to get orangutan Bonni back where she belongs.