Natural World (1983) s24e01 Episode Script

The rainforests of Asia are the ancient home of the mysterious red ape, the orangutan For 15 million years, the males of this race have fought each other here for dominance.
On the island of Borneo, one of their last outposts, there is one who has become a legend.
He's conquered more than just a kingdom.
He's won human hearts And they've given him the name Kusasi His ruling rank brings special privileges with the females He's fathered many youngster.
His bloodline marks him a winner But behind this success lies an epic story of survival.
For Kusasi was an Orphan.
A baby stolen for the pet trade.
But he escaped, and battling to survive, he turned his misfortune into triumphs.
He became a king among the orangutans.
Today, after years of tenacious fighting, his strength is fading.
Yet Kusasi's grip on human hearts has never been stronger.
Those who watched his life unfold, now step in to save him again.
He is unique.
A bridge between ourselves and the orangutans And over his extraordinary life, he has given us a glimpse of a world that may soon be gone.
This is his story.
Kusasi was born almost 30 years ago, in a nest, high up in the tree canopy.
It's where orangutan infants enter the world Just like human babies, they are completely helpless dependent upon their mother's protection.
But for Kusasi, that safety would soon be shattered.
For centuries the people of Borneo lived in awe of the red ape, of how it moved unseen through the forest, appearing at will.
They believed orangutans are beings of the spirit world.
But in more recent times this fear was overcome by greed.
When Kusasi was 2 years old hunters killed his mother, and kidnapped him The kidnappers worked in the animal trade.
In nearby towns were buyers wanting exotic creatures to sell in the rich cities of northern Asia.
But when they grew too big to play, they were killed.
For Kusasi it wasn't to end that way.
The trade in rare animals became illegal and he was rescued by police.
They took him back up the Sekonyer River towards the forest where he was born.
But what was left for him there.
How could he go back to a life in the forest? Every year in Borneo, hundreds of infant orangutans still lose their mothers.
And like Kusasi, just a few of them will be rescued and given a chance to return to the forest It's a journey that takes many years.
Baby orangutans depend on their mothers.
It's her experience and care that shape their lives.
To ever live freely in their forest again, these orphans need the protection of a new mother figure.
It could even be a human that gives it Birute Galdikas came to live in this forest a few years before Kusasi was born.
Her ambition was to study wild orangutans and find clues to human origins.
She was the first biologist to draw so close to the mysterious red ape.
When the confiscations began, her jungle camp, Camp Leakey, became a home for the rescued orphans.
But it was much more than a sanctuary.
Birute gave the infants her care and guidance, just as a mother would.
Over nearly 40 years she's helped hundreds of orphans make the journey back to the wild.
It was on August 22nd 1978 that Kusasi travelled up river, to Camp Leakey It was his chance to return.
He'd spent months confined to a crate.
Now his life was beginning again.
But soon it was obvious that Kusasi was different.
Not just another helpless orphan When he first came to Camp Leakey he did not behave like the usual orangutan infant.
Usually traumatized infants are squealing, they¡¯re trying to cling to the appropriate person who most resembles mother, in some cases it's a human being, they're very traumatized they even sometimes cling to themselves, hold themselves as because they absolutely need to cling to somebody.
Kusasi didn't behave in this way.
He didn't squeal, he didn't cling.
What he did was he escaped.
Kusasi broke out of his crate.
But what kind of freedom had he found? For a 3 year old orangutan alone, the forest is a death trap.
It seemed certain that Kusasi had met a gory end.
When we discovered Kusasi was missing the conclusion was absolutely clear.
Kusasi had been taken from his cage, dragged across the grass, killed and eaten by a pig.
The conclusion was that he was dead.
Life in camp moved on.
The loss of one little orangutan was soon forgotten as others flooded in.
But one and a half years later Kusasi sprang another surprise on Camp Leakey.
It was actually a very ordinary day, most of us were in camp and one of the assistants comes and says there is a strange infant hanging from the window of the dining hall.
I said where is the mother? It's there is strange infant he or she has to have a mother? They said there is no mother.
He is alone.
Kusasi's return was the greatest miracle that I ever experienced in camp.
There are all kinds of things in the forest that are absolutely dangerous, especially to a small baby orangutan.
It was the human equivalent of a two year old toddler being put out on the streets of London or New York and expecting them to survive on their own, and one a half years later find him or her still alive.
That's how dramatic Kusasi's resurrection was How had Kusasi managed to survive alone for 18 months? Life with a mother is a safe ride through spaces perilously high up.
From this roof over the forest it's more than a 100ft down.
But it's where the best fruit can be found.
Infant orangutans have neither the balance nor strength to reach these high places alone.
In this complex world they need their mothers for the first 6 years.
Yet at just 3, Kusasi had spent 18 months alone in the forest.
Or had he? Could he have found a surrogate mother? For here he was, a survivor.
And why had he come back? When he entered the world of Camp Leakey for a second time, Kusasi was only 5 years old, still needing a mother's care.
But he was taking an enormous risk.
Humans had killed his mother and caged him.
Could he sense that these people would treat him differently? It was impossible to imagine then, but Kusasi's return was the beginning of the longest ever study of a wild male orangutan.
It was February 1981 and with the unique images captured over the decades, his life is on record.
This is one of the first pictures that we have of Kusasi where he has just had some milk, he's very relaxed, but the gleam in his eye is visible.
Camp Leakey was already a busy place.
The orphans here were experiencing freedoms they never had before.
And they are natural mischief makers.
But they also had psychological traumas, separation anxieties.
And these disturbed personalities gave the humans plenty to observe.
The records reveal that Kusasi was wary of humans and took a while to settled in.
Others were much less reserved, like Princess.
These young females was Kusasi's age, but astonishingly open to new ideas.
She was already half of a unique relationship with Gary Shapiro.
He'd come to do some new research into orangutan language ability Princess can still be found in Camp today, with her little son Percy.
And she's still a draw for Gary.
Princess has never forgotten Gary.
They turned out to be so important for each other that 25 years later, the relationship survives For orangutans too, relationships can last a lifetime.
We would go everywhere together.
She was essentially glued to my shoulders as we walked around camp together.
We'd go down to the river here and go swimming together, then have our breakfast and frequently our dinners together.
We formed a very close relationship.
Kusasi, on the other hand, continued to avoid this kind of close contact with humans.
Was it because of his traumatic start in life? Or was he just avoiding a world that did not belong to him where humans were parents and teachers.
Princess became famous worldwide for her language skills.
She could 'speak' to Gary using 30 different signs, naming a hat, a wristwatch or a flower.
She still remembers them today.
Apa ini Cess, Food? Apa ini? Fruit Ok.
I'm going to ask her how.
Bagi manu she taps it twice like that, that's to open it.
Princess was never a student in the classroom who was highly motivated, in fact she was very bored with her sign studies, it was very difficult to keep her attention and keep her in class.
And that was remarkable in itself the fact that you know, she did tolerate this and went through it all compared to the other orangutans we worked with.
Her learning and how she learned, and particularly on her own outside the signing context, helped her to develop the kind of intellect she does have, particularly in the areas of problem solving and tool using.
She's a bicultural ape, she spends part of her time in camp she gets the food that she wants just by figuring how to open up locks and getting into food lockers normally and she spends the rest of her time in the forest, being an orangutan, looking for foods there.
While many orphans did attach themselves to humans, Kusasi was left still needing the protection of a mother figure.
In fact, Kusasi was just doing things his own way again.
He had his own idea of who his mother should be.
Kusasi's next move indicated what a smart individual he was.
He attached himself to Siswoyo, the most dominant orangutan in the vicinity of Camp Leakey.
Siswoyo didn't really want him to be her surrogate son, but he persisted, she lunged at him, she would chase him a little bit, but he just kept on following her, he just kept being in her shadow.
And because she was the dominant orangutan it was like he was in the shadow of the Empress.
Everywhere she went this red wave of orangutans would move and it would be like the red Sea parting.
And as she walked through, Kusasi would follow in her wake, he got access to the food, he got access to the milk, and that made him stronger, that gave him an advantage so he might not have otherwise have had.
Princess and Kusasi found security in different ways And that set the scene for the rest of their lives Kusasi went his own way from the start and has done ever since.
But Princess was drawn into our human world Close enough to unravel our ideas, our minds She was a natural observer, with much more than a simple knack for imitation Today you can see her mind at work in astonishing ways.
Using her insights with skill and purpose, she can almost appear like one of us.
We do share 95% of genetic material with them But they live in a Universe that is very alien to us, because they are so solitary, they do not know loneliness.
By observing them we relate to the similarities with human beings and that's how they make fools of us.
We think we understand them because we understand the similarities but in reality, what is really important is the difference Princess made the scientific news.
But did signing for a wristwatch ever pass for intelligence in her world? Probably not.
She just went along with it, to get the affection she craved Princess has been very significant in my life When people ask me how many children I have and I say two, I have one human and one non-human child.
I carry a picture of her as a baby in my wallet, so she's always a reminder of who she was and who she still is to me.
One year old Percy is Princess' third infant fathered by Kusasi.
And she's a grandmother now.
But the bond they had then may have helped her become the strong mother she is today Giving Percy a great start in life.
Once an orangutan is an adult female and she is with her child she is quite a distinct individual.
There really is no grand desire to be tickled or to be carried around or to be the way she was when she was much younger.
Kusasi never had this much attention from Siswoyo.
Yet images from 1984 do show him starting to relax in camp.
This is Kusasi.
The light in his eyes is still very apparent, but it's Kusasi having fun.
Kusasi's found this old burlap sack, and he's just playing with it.
He doesn't have a care in the world.
But life would soon become more serious again.
He'd never been fully accepted by Siswoyo.
In fact, she'd often given him a rough time.
But she had fulfilled the role of guide and teacher and now he was about to lose her.
Siswoyo become pregnant in late 1985.
The baby would change everything.
Kusasi would soon be alone again.
A mother with a new infant will only tolerate the older offspring for a while.
But these hangers-on still seek her affection.
And breaking that bond is hard.
Even though she never wanted him, the loss of his surrogate mother was a big test for Kusasi.
Had he learned enough to survive alone in a world where everyone must compete for shelter and for food? Moving around the tree tops is one skill Kusasi had roughed out by then.
But there were many other challenges ahead.
Each night orangutans build a nest high up in the trees to sleep in.
For a novice this can be a DIY disaster.
For the time being it would be a case of getting by on the practical side of life.
But it was mental strength he really needed for the road ahead.
Has the loss of his real mother been repaired by his bond with Siswoyo? She was tough on him, but looking back Kusasi's choice of a forceful surrogate mother seemed to set the course of his future.
What Kusasi learned from his relationship with Siswoyo, was what it feels like to be dominant.
This feeling of dominance is what probably shaped the rest of his life.
The orphan had begun the path to Greatness.
A new way of life now opened up for Kusasi.
Where his wits and strength are challenged every day.
The fighting began.
Photographs of Kusasi from 1987 show the body of a gawky teenager, but the face character within it.
At twelve, he'd begun his long campaign to reach the top.
To become a winner, a young male must bulk up.
Males can reach double the size of females, and they need to if they're to fight off the competition.
But to reach this combat weight they need a lot of food.
Fruit is scattered far and wide but orangutans can make a mental map of where the best trees are, like the fig and the jack fruit, and to remember which week of the year their fruit ripens in, timing their journeys perfectly And as he roams, a young lone male tests his courage and powers.
Approaching females, seizing a chance when a dominant male's back is turned.
But as a smaller male he is not welcomed by the females.
They protest, and fight.
To be successful, he must use force and speed.
This is a high risk strategy.
Being caught by an dominant male could easily mean death.
But as Kusasi grew bigger and stronger, so his confidence grew too.
In 1995 Kusasi was 19 years old and ready to enter the big time.
When I left camp, Kusasi was still a sub adult male, when I came back three months later there was just this incredible transformation that had occurred.
Finally, Kusasi the cheekpadder.
Kusasi had bulked up in size, he had muscles and there was this confidence and serenity that he hadn't had as a sub-adult male.
He's just absolutely magnificent, And the gleam in his eye is still there.
Stronger than ever.
You can see it.
It's a male's cheekpads that signal to others that he is a contender for power Cheekpads only grow if his testosterone surges to the highest levels.
With these and a throat pouch for the booming long calls, he is ready to fight for dominance Kusasi would risk his life now to be King.
In order to claim his throne Kusasi had to defeat the other contenders, the main contender was Yayat.
Yayat had become stronger.
There had to be a showdown.
Yayat was a few years older than Kusasi.
Their previous fights had always ended in stalemate Now the violence escalated.
The fighting with Yayat became for real, absolutely for real.
There were a series of combats over the years.
Kusasi always won.
The last combat was so severe and so brutal, so savage, that Kusasi almost ripped off Yayat's face.
Kusasi was no longer the chancing wanderer These forests were his now.
As they still are today.
Kusasi is a king but without an entourage.
Like any adult male orangutan, he is solitary.
He travels, eats and sleeps alone.
But he rules by fear.
His distinctive long call announces his presence, encouraging females to come to him, and warning other males away.
He must stay on the move patrolling his boarders.
Keeping up his fighting weight.
And his long struggle has always been about one thing.
Kusasi's reign, he has fought hard for the right to mate and to pass on his genes This is Siswi, one of Siswoyo's daughters.
Kusasi's adopted sister 20 years ago Siswi was one of Kusasi's favourites, they grew up together, but he did not regard her as a sister.
They had a great deal of play sex together, and when Siswi became an adolescent, they had a lot of real sex together.
He had sex with Princess, he has sex with Tut, he had sex with Unyuk, he had sex with Siswi.
If there was a female in camp, he had sex with her.
Kusasi spends most time with females he's known the longest.
It's as if, despite his solitary existence in the forest, he finds comfort in familiar faces.
The female seeks out the dominant male, with cheekpads, she listens for his long call in the forest, and she frequently will move towards him, especially if he is close in the vicinity.
It's during these encounters that Kusasi shows a softer side beyond the brute hostility of a dominant male These females appear to be more than sexual partners.
They seem to be life long friends.
Kusasi has been in a position where the females want to mate with him.
Sometimes the females almost offer themselves to him, they lay back, spread their legs.
You know the welcome sailor position, and just wait for him.
In all these years as King, Kusasi has never warmed to humans.
Yet humans have come from all over the world out of respect for him.
In 1997 one of his visitors was actor Julia Roberts.
She'd read about Kusasi's achievements and came to take in the atmosphere of his forest world.
But their encounter wasn't quite what she'd expected.
Kusasi's relationship with humans contained some antagonism and belligerence He would trip them, he would take food away from them, some of that fight club aggression was also directed towards humans and humans became very afraid of him He's got me.
It's okay.
He's ok, and she's ok too.
I'm feel, I'm sort of vibrating from head to foot really and I think in the sort of overwhelmed joyful sense keep sort of bursting into tears now and then but I think it's just the raw thrill of an experience like that which I never could have fathomed and it happened so fast and he is so unbelievably strong.
Kusasi's attitude to humans varied from outright irritation to indifference.
But he was a reassuring presence to his own females and young.
And the interesting thing about this aura of power that he exuded is he also became protective of the orangutans in the vicinity of camp, and even of the camp itself, it was almost like he was a guardian spirit.
Over time many rivals have tried to topple him but Kusasi remains.
His grip on power has now lasted for 10 years His long rule has brought stability to his forest kingdom.
It's his dominance that underpins the orangutan world.
Under his reign younger males will fight for status.
It's the natural way of things.
They pit their strength against each other, seeking a foothold on the ladder to power.
Kusasi watches and controls them Ruling through fear alone.
But it's not just the males within his kingdom that Kusasi must control.
In the 10 years of his reign, Borneo has entered a crisis And the path of his life is changing again.
Humans surrounded his boarders, attacking the forest in the rush for hardwood and gold And farmers follow behind with fire.
Devastating orangutan territory all over Borneo.
Male orangutans made homeless by this destruction, invade Kusasi's borders Time has finally caught up with him.
In a fight with a rouge male he's been badly wounded.
The camp's vet, Dr Rosa Delgado, has come to see Kusasi's injuries.
But she doesn't dare get too close Wow you can fit the fingers inside the wounds.
There are deep bite marks from long canine teeth across Kusasi's head.
He has an abscess.
I guess it's a bite, several bites.
I mean you can see its couple of centimetres at least.
But I guess it's a lot of debris and maggots.
The bites are infected and Rosa knows where that can lead.
If somehow that drains into the nose, and then can drain into the lungs, then the infection can go into the lungs and it's also life threatening.
Then he can get septicaemia, and he will die For the first time, it seems Kusasi may have met his match.
For a while he returns to the forest, but with such deep head wounds he is vulnerable.
The females see his injuries and sense his crisis.
He's been their ruler and protector for so long.
But now his moments with them could be numbered.
A shadow falls over Kusasi's realm.
A few days later he turns his back on the forest And just as he did 20 years ago, he returns to camp.
They hold their breath and watch.
Ready to step in if his condition deteriorates But waiting is risky too.
His behaviour towards humans has become dangerously unpredictable There's no option but to try to treat Kusasi's wounds But first they'll have to knock him out and that's a prospect no one's looking forward to.
Don't destroy it.
That's a new one.
Disgusting orangutan.
It's so expensive.
It's a relief the tranquiliser dart is in but there is always a double danger in putting such a large animal under anaesthetic for Kusasi, and for those helping him.
We don't know who Kusasi was fighting in the forest.
But we do know that when he came back to camp he was absolutely ripped apart, he was shredded, puncture wounds all over him almost like he'd walked into a puncture machine.
The team set up a makeshift operating table and investigate.
But they've only got an hour at most before Kusasi will wake up again.
There is a lot of dead tissue.
and I'm just trying to see how deep this goes, it's very swollen here but it's soft, it's not full with liquid.
Cleaning his wounds will give him a better chance to recover.
It's a deep wound but it's a lot of fat big head, you cannot even feel the bones Kusasi has been given extra time.
His days as King are not yet over.
I can't conceive of Kusasi as a sad old man, all beat up.
A sad old orangutan male slinking away into the woodwork.
I just don't see him.
I think he will go down fighting.
That night, Kusasi long calls from the forest close to Camp.
To tell the world he's still in charge.
And soon he's back with Siswi.
His battle scars have not diminished his appetite for life.
He's lost catastrophically, in terms of the battles that he's fought, the physical battles that he's fought but I don't think he's yet lost psychologically That's his genius, that's the genius of Kusasi Kusasi was an orphan, who became a King.
But his legacy may be greater still.
His amazing story has captured the human imagination.
He may even help to secure a future for all orangutans.
But in his threatened kingdom could another ever match his success It will take a very special individual to take his place in our hearts.
Or to stake that claim for all his kind in that same unbending matter as Kusasi.