NOVA cameras travel to Borneo, one of the last habitats of the wild orangutans, where scientists study the endangered ape. Who is observing whom? It is not always clear.
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00:00Tonight on NOVA. Wild orangutans are humankind's third closest relatives. They live elusive
00:14lives deep in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra. But fewer than 40,000 orangutans still live
00:20in the wild. Their rainforest home is rapidly being bulldozed away. And there is a growing
00:26population of orphaned and captive orangutans that are being cared for and then released
00:31into the jungle. Come to the treetops of Borneo for a rare look at the orangutans of the rainforest.
00:44Major funding for NOVA is provided by this station and other public television stations
00:48nationwide. Additional funding was provided by the Johnson & Johnson family of companies
00:55supplying health care products worldwide. And by Allied Signal, a technology leader
01:02in aerospace, electronics, automotive products, and engineered materials.
01:25The hardwood canopy of Borneo's tropical rainforest towers 200 feet above the ground.
01:37These lush, steamy treetops are home to the orangutan, the only great ape indigenous to Asia.
01:47In the Malay language, orangutan means man of the forest. Ancient tribal legends maintain
01:59that the orangs were simply hairy people who chose to live in the trees. The forest people
02:07refused to talk, the stories say, in order to avoid being put to work. Orangutans once
02:19inhabited the forest canopies all across southern Asia, but today they are a seriously endangered
02:25species. Fewer than 30,000 wild orangutans may now exist, and the survivors all live
02:34in the shrinking jungles of Borneo and Sumatra. Borneo is the fifth largest island in the
02:43world, a little bigger than the state of Texas. It lies on the equator off the coast of mainland
02:49Southeast Asia. The northern section, Sabah and Sarawak, are part of Malaysia. Kalimantan,
02:56the southern two-thirds of the island, belongs to Indonesia. And it is here, in the remote
03:02Tanjung Puting National Forest, that Dr. Biruti Galdikas conducts the most comprehensive study
03:08of wild orangutans in the world. She teaches at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia,
03:14but her real work is here. I arrived here 14 years ago and established the orangutan
03:24and conservation project. When I'm away in Canada and the United States, Kalimantan becomes a dream.
03:34It's extremely nice to come back and find that my dream is still real, that my dream does have
03:42a reality. Of course, I think about my husband, whom I haven't seen for a long time.
03:54Pabohab hasn't yet seen Jane, because Jane was born in Canada, and I know he's absolutely going to be thrilled.
04:05Dr. Galdikas' long-awaited homecoming is a happy one. Her husband, Pabohab, is an Indonesian citizen.
04:14He originally worked for Dr. Galdikas as a skilled tracker of wild orangs.
04:18Now he maintains the camp while she is in Canada and assists her with research.
04:24Some orangs have become almost like members of the family, and welcome Dr. Galdikas, Jane, and four-year-old Frederick.
04:39Frederick has spent most of his young life playing not with other children, but with young orangutans.
04:55The remote outpost in Tanjung Puting is the headquarters of Dr. Galdikas' ongoing study of wild orangutans.
05:03But it also serves as a rehabilitation center for orphaned orangs brought here by the Indonesian government.
05:10About 30 orangutans and only a dozen people live in and around the 10-acre camp.
05:17The camp's unofficial mascot is Sapina, a young female who has lived here nearly her whole life.
05:23Dr. Galdikas re-establishes her close friendship with a young orang and prepares to resume her studies in the wild once again.
05:31Like Jane Goodall and the late Diane Fossey, Dr. Galdikas was encouraged to undertake her great ape research by the famous paleontologist Louis Leakey.
05:41Since the early 1970s, she has devoted her life to detailing the behavior of the shadowy elusive arboreal orangutan.
05:49When I first came out here, my goal was to accumulate life histories for wild orangutans,
05:56to follow wild orangutans from birth to death through all the different life stages, infancy,
06:02sexual maturity, the first offspring, subsequent offspring, and then finally death.
06:10Fourteen years ago, it was extremely difficult for me to find wild orangutans. Sometimes I would have to search for up to 10 days.
06:32Now we have much more extensive trail system. We have over 150 kilometers
06:38worth of trails cut in the study area. Now I have my husband, Pabohab. He is an unusually skilled
06:48orangutan locator, so usually he finds an orangutan in one or two days.
07:08When I started becoming interested in orangutans, I was convinced that they were closer to humankind
07:15than the other great apes, but in reality this is not so. Orangutans are humankind's third
07:23closest living relatives in the animal kingdom, after chimpanzees and after gorillas,
07:29but still there is something very human about them.
07:33And the other thing that interested me is the fact that orangutans are the only great ape
07:40that has not left the tropical rainforest. So the orangutans are still living in exactly
07:47the same habitat in which the common human great ape ancestor evolved. So my feeling was that if we
07:57So my feeling was that if we wanted to understand human evolution,
08:00we had to understand the one great ape that was still living in the tropical rainforest.
08:14But the tropical rainforest itself is being bulldozed away
08:18to create settlements and farmland for Indonesia's burgeoning human population.
08:23As civilization destroys the jungle, it creates chaos for the creatures that once lived here.
08:36Their habitat is steadily disappearing.
08:40And in the process, young orangs are often separated from their mothers,
08:44orphaned and then captured. Local trade in these animals was once very active.
08:50A young orang like this one could bring $50,000 on the black market.
08:57Now orangutans are protected by international law.
09:01And because of Dr. Galdikas' work with the wild orangs, this young orphan and others like it
09:06will be given another chance to live an almost normal life.
09:10It will be sent to the rehabilitation center at Tanjung Puting.
09:15Orphaned and captive animals come by boat from all over Kalimantan.
09:19They will be raised by Dr. Galdikas, her staff and family
09:22in a kind of limbo, no longer captive but not truly wild.
09:29The reason that I started doing this work
09:33was to guarantee the safety of the wild orangutan population that I was studying.
09:39It was very clear that as long as there was wild orangutan trade
09:43in the general vicinity of the national park, perhaps even the animals in our study area would
09:49be threatened. So we had to do something to stop the trade. As it turned out, the Indonesian
09:57Forestry Department were very interested in having somebody set up an orangutan rehabilitation station.
10:03The PPA officials confiscate orangutans either from logging companies or from private individuals
10:09who don't have permission to keep the orangutans. And usually after confiscation, they bring them
10:15to me, and my responsibility is to rehabilitate it and then eventually relocate it.
10:23It has been clear for a number of years that the habitat around camp, the forest around camp,
10:29simply could not harbor more ex-captive orangutans. But what could we do? If we were given confiscated
10:36orangutans by the forestry, we obviously had to accept them. But it's they who make the decisions
10:42concerning these matters, not us.
10:45The arrival of each new orang adds to Dr. Galdikas' complicated task and takes away time and resources
10:51from her studies in the wild. Adopting a baby orangutan, like adopting a human child, involves
10:58great responsibility and a lot of time. The orangutan is a very important part of the
11:04and takes away time and resources from her studies in the wild.
11:09Adopting a baby orangutan, like adopting a human child, involves great responsibility.
11:15Like all young primates, including human children, orangutans are born without the
11:19abilities or ingrained instincts that allow them to survive in their own environment.
11:24In the wild, orangutan babies spend five to six years with their mothers,
11:28learning the complicated skills necessary to climb trees, gather food, and interact with their own
11:33kind. In the beginning, Dr. Galdikas herself tried to be a substitute for the orangutan mother.
11:40I only hand raised a few. I only hand raised maybe four or five. Now we have a different
11:45system. Now we try to get the adolescent and sub-adult males to adopt new infants that come in.
11:52It's a sensible idea because obviously we humans are not as good a role model
11:57for infant orangutans as other orangutans are. They have to learn from each other
12:02because they learn the wrong things from us.
12:05A suitable foster parent must be found or this baby will die.
12:10Sometimes adult females will readily adopt new orphans, but they may reject a newcomer,
12:15sometimes forcibly. It's not working, April. It's not working, April. We're gonna have to try somebody else.
12:22April.
12:33Fortunately, a young adult male adopts the little orphan and he even lets the baby suckle at his
12:37breast. There may not be milk, but there is comfort, warmth, and security in his embrace.
12:43In the wild, such a relationship would never exist.
12:47The only close social bond is between mothers and their dependent offspring.
12:56But here, nurturing and survival matter more than anything else.
13:02And this foster parent bond ensures that the little orphan will be able to survive.
13:07And this foster parent bond ensures that the little orphan will be properly educated and
13:12protected from predators like fierce wild boars that prey upon careless young orangutans.
13:23The camp itself is not enclosed and sometimes its relatively peaceful life is disrupted by
13:28a wild adult male who comes in from the deep jungle attracted by females in camp.
13:37The inexperienced young males at Tanjung Puting can find themselves threatened by the excitable
13:49interloper. In the wild, when two males meet, there is a show of strength and a standoff.
13:56It is normal behavior for a wild orang, but these ex-captives don't quite know how to respond.
14:02Safety can sometimes be found out on a limb.
14:08The male's large cheek callosities enlarge the size of the face
14:12and may aid in attracting choice females and in dominance displays over other males.
14:18Full-grown male orangutans can weigh as much as 175 pounds and have an eight-foot arm span.
14:24Adult males live primarily solitary lives and only infrequently find companionship
14:29with a receptive female for a few days at a time.
14:37The male's large cheek callosities are a sign that he has a strong will to survive.
14:43Wild adult females are only about half the size of the males and they are almost never alone.
14:49For most of their lives, they have a young baby with them
14:51and they resist mating while caring for an infant.
14:55Occasionally, young adult males and females will copulate,
14:58but this rarely produces offspring and seems to be more for practice than procreation.
15:03After a successful mating, the gestation period is about seven and a half months.
15:09Female orangutans nurse their young for around two years
15:12and aid in the transition to solid food by pre-chewing for their young.
15:17A baby orangutan will cling inseparably to its mother for 12 months.
15:22The mother will not be able to feed the baby.
15:26The baby orangutans will not be able to eat their mother's food.
15:29A baby orangutan will cling inseparably to its mother for 12 months,
15:33clutching onto her long hair, demanding undivided attention.
15:38Young orangs stay with their mothers for five to six years,
15:41then are forcibly rejected.
15:44Females only raise one baby at a time.
15:47Obviously, a second infant would be nearly impossible for this arboreal primate to handle.
15:52In effect, the orangutans at Tanjung Puting only reproduce one infant every seven years.
15:59Orangutans in the wild eat fruits, flowers, insects, the inner bark off of trees,
16:08and the succulent pith of moisture-laden branches and leaves.
16:25Of the average 11 and a half hours they spend every day browsing
16:28for different sorts of food, a solid four and a half hours may be spent eating.
16:34Part of the ongoing study at Tanjung Puting National Park
16:57focuses on the precise eating habits of the wild orangutans.
17:04Trees in which they have been feeding are marked with coded tags.
17:08Entries in logbooks can then refer to specific trees and animals.
17:14Orangutan droppings are collected,
17:16and the seeds found within them are planted to see what sort of plants grow.
17:26Dr. Galdika sometimes finds her gardening skills an important tool for increasing
17:31her knowledge about the diversity and range of the wild orang and its feeding habits.
17:45Meanwhile, Sapina gets a free drink.
17:47Life for humans at the camp is simple, unhurried.
18:10Dinner usually consists of rice and vegetables with an occasional fish.
18:18Dr. Galdika salows these short, hairy guests at the table as long as they mind their manners.
18:24She considers some of the orphaned orangutans part of her family.
18:28They are somewhere between being wild animals and pets.
18:31Freddy's got the idea, hold the door open for her.
18:48Four-year-old Frederick has no human playmates his own age.
18:51His friends are the orangutans.
18:56And both young animals display behavior distinctly learned from the other species.
19:10As with all children, there is some give and take.
19:18Sometimes, Frederick's human wildness gives him an unfair advantage.
19:39Other times, the orangutan's strength wins out.
19:47Either way, the result is reminiscent of children playing anywhere.
19:54But very soon, this young animal will be too strong to play safely with Frederick any longer.
20:05Orangutans learn by imitating, though with humans as examples,
20:09what they learn may be quite inappropriate to life as an orang.
20:12Nevertheless, their ability to learn new tasks quickly demonstrates their high intelligence.
20:42The infant orangutan clings to her mother throughout the entire lengthy operation.
21:12Orangutans that live in camp have no need to forage to survive,
21:19because they are completely fed and cared for by humans.
21:23They end up with plenty of time on their hands.
21:25And a bored orangutan very quickly becomes a nuisance, a very destructive nuisance.
21:31Dr. Galdikas' permits to study the wild orangutans of Tanjung Puting National Park
21:37are supplied on an annual basis.
21:39And one of the conditions for continued issuance is that she accept all the confiscated orangutans
21:45brought to her by the Indonesian government.
21:47With the resultant overpopulation of ex-captive orangs,
21:51camp life is a continual round of discipline.
21:56With the resultant overpopulation of ex-captive orangs,
21:59camp life is a continual round of destruction and repair.
22:04This and the loss of her valuable study time is the price she must pay
22:08to continue her work on the wild animals.
22:11With 30 curious and powerful orangutans trying to get into anything and everything,
22:15even the roof has to be nailed down.
22:25But it is a sort of interspecies extended family,
22:42and the evenings are often peaceful and quiet.
23:26Each night, orangutans build new nests of woven branches and leaves
23:30and sleep high off the ground.
23:35Dr. Galdikas takes advantage of the tranquil solitude
23:38to make her journal entries and update her records.
23:42Over the last 14 years, she has logged in 30,000 hours of observation,
23:46a massive amount of scientific data that needs to be analyzed before her work can be published.
23:56The blazing equatorial sun rises over the dew-soaked forest,
24:01and soon afterwards, the air is full of steam.
24:04The orangutans awaken at the first light,
24:06but this is the tropics where nothing seems to move very quickly.
24:12All the orangutans, wild and ex-captive, begin their day slowly,
24:16lying in bed for an hour or two after sunrise.
24:19The ex-captive orangutans are fed twice a day near the camp.
24:23The orangutans in the camp have found the perfect food,
24:26but they do not find the right weather for the catch.
24:30They are split into three groups,
24:31and the first group is made up of the youngest orangutans and the oldest.
24:41The children play together and see the catch.
24:44The ex-captive orangutans are fed twice a day near the camp.
24:48The early morning feeding always brings them down from the trees.
24:53The call, makan, makan, eat, eat, from the fruit wagon
24:57draws them to the feast of bananas, sweet potatoes and pineapples.
25:15Huge amounts of fruit and vegetables have to be shipped up the river by boat
25:19to feed the hungry crowd.
25:38We feed them essentially what they want
25:41so they don't go out and destroy the forest and destroy the habitat of the wild orangutans in this area.
25:50Some people would say that perhaps this would be contrary to the goals of rehabilitation,
25:56but I don't think so.
25:58Our primary concern is the wild orangutans who are still left in their natural state.
26:05These ex-captives, much as we like them and value them, are secondary.
26:15The current state of affairs in Tanjung Puting is that we have
26:19approximately 30 ex-captive orangutans or their offspring around camp
26:27and the problem is that we simply don't have enough habitat for them.
26:32The ex-captive orangutans are very destructive
26:35if they are concentrated in a small area as they are around camp.
26:41The reason that they are destructive is because they gather
26:44to wait for the food to be brought to them
26:47and while they are waiting they are eating the bark off many of the trees
26:51and the leaves off many of the trees
26:53and gradually over months and years they totally destroy the bark
26:57and then the trees die.
26:59And then the trees die.
27:12Wild orangutans normally make a new nest every night
27:16and so the ex-captives try to make a new nest every night
27:21and so the amount of nest building that there is in the vicinity of camp
27:25is just absolutely incredible.
27:28You can count a hundred nests in the vicinity of camp.
27:35So between bark eating, nest building,
27:39making covers for themselves during rainstorms,
27:44dropping of branches, throwing of branches, playing,
27:48you can see what the forest around camp looks like.
27:53If it were a primary forest it could handle it better
27:56but even the primary forest across the river
27:59at least ten mature trees were killed by the orangutans.
28:06There is an urgent and growing need to relocate these unruly ex-captives in the wild
28:11far from the study site.
28:15Our hope is to take many of the ex-captives from Tanjung Puting
28:23and do one of two things with them.
28:26Some of them we are going to disperse around the national park.
28:33Our second alternative is to take the ex-captives here
28:38and transport them as a group, as a community,
28:42to a nature reserve in South Borneo
28:44where orangutans have been extinct for over a hundred years.
28:49The relocation of the ex-captives will fulfill Dr. Galdikas' pledge
28:54to rehabilitate and release the animals
28:57and it will free her to concentrate more fully on her study of the wild orangutans
29:01high in the rainforest canopy.
29:10This man, Dr. Donald Perry, has developed a surprising tool
29:14that will enable Dr. Galdikas to observe the orangutan's treetop home
29:18from a radically new perspective.
29:29Dr. Perry is a tropical rainforest biologist from UCLA.
29:34He specializes in studying life in the rainforest canopy.
29:38He has managed to leave the soggy forest floor
29:41and climb to the tops of the tallest trees
29:44where he has found one of the world's richest ecosystems.
29:48He is pioneering a striking method of reaching his field of interest.
29:54Initially I devised a very simple tree climbing method
29:58for gaining access to trees which could reach heights up to 200 feet.
30:05Their first limbs might be 100 feet above the ground.
30:12Using a crossbow, he launches an arrow tied to a fishing line high over a branch.
30:22He then attaches climbing rope to the line
30:25and soon has access to a place that until now has been inaccessible to humans.
30:34Mechanical ascenders make it possible for people to use the strength of their legs
30:39to climb as much as 100 feet above the ground.
30:45Scientists haven't been here up in the treetops looking at orangutans before
30:50and I believe that a lot can be learned from this position and this perspective.
31:02The orangutan is the largest arboreal mammal
31:07and they do reach a weight equal to that of a human being.
31:13I find it incredible that orangutans are able to survive in the habitat
31:19with the great weight that they have.
31:23They can easily break small limbs and as you watch them move through the trees
31:27you see that they're very careful about how they move.
31:31They'll be holding a tree or a vine and before they transfer their weight
31:35they've tested the next position.
31:41They grip branches, they swing trees off center.
31:46Often you'll hear the trees crashing to the ground, limbs falling
31:51and this is just, in some cases, just from locomotion.
31:58They have to be very careful or they're doomed, they will fall.
32:06Spending long periods in the canopy has caused me to wonder
32:10about ourselves and our evolutionary past.
32:15What kind of animal were we before we left the trees?
32:20The fact that the canopy has been a factory which has sculpted the shape of these animals
32:28and this shape, of course, is a similar shape to our own.
32:36There are a number of features which are strictly due to an arboreal heritage.
32:45Forward facing eyes, grasping hands and an enlarged brain.
32:53So to come to Borneo and look at orangutans is an exploration in part
33:01of what our ancestors may have been like.
33:06Dr. Perry has done most of his work studying the trees
33:10in the canopy of the Central American rainforests.
33:13This is his first introduction to orangutans and their particular sort of welcome.
33:23He was surprised when one stole his canteen
33:26and even more surprised with what happened then.
33:36Orangutans are the largest carnivorous species in the world.
33:41They are the largest carnivorous species in the world.
33:44They are the largest carnivorous species in the world.
33:52So in order to climb the rope, you put an ascender on the upper
34:00up here and you connect that to the harness.
34:04Perry introduces Dr. Galdikas to his novel method.
34:09So you can see here, when you pull down, it won't slide down the rope
34:13and you can easily slip it up.
34:16So this one, combined with the lower ascender,
34:21will allow you to climb the rope in an inchworm kind of fashion.
34:27I think if you put your hand in here, you'll be better off.
34:29Yeah, and push up from there.
34:33Oh, gee, that was the longest one you've done.
34:38I'm pretty satisfied with how you're doing this.
34:41Yeah, that was good.
34:43I am very confident that we can get you up to a nest real soon.
34:49Maybe tomorrow.
34:52I was thinking, like, maybe next year.
34:56Dr. Galdikas learns this new skill quickly
34:58and soon finds herself with a new point of view.
35:04Do you see how the orangutan must have taken off little tiny twigs
35:09and lined the nest on one side?
35:12Is it symmetrical?
35:14Oh, yeah, yeah. See, over there.
35:16Very symmetrical, almost like a pillow.
35:23Zepina, I thought we were friends.
35:25Remember all the goodies I've given you?
35:28The canopy of the rainforest is now accessible to Dr. Galdikas.
35:32She can observe the orangutan in its real home.
35:35It is almost like discovering a new world.
35:58But as the forest canopy comes within reach of human eyes,
36:02the steamy treetop home of the wild orangs
36:05is fast disappearing from the face of the earth.
36:10Five hundred miles north of Kalimantan,
36:12the rainforest of northern Borneo in Malaysia
36:15is being cut and bulldozed at a national level.
36:19It is the only place in the world
36:21where the wild orangutans live.
36:23The forest of northern Borneo in Malaysia
36:25is being cut and bulldozed at a numbing pace.
36:30Vast expanses of timber are sold off,
36:33the meager red earth bared for agriculture.
36:36Farmers spread fertilizer to increase the production of food
36:39for the ever-expanding human population.
36:44And the population of wild orangs is placed in increasing jeopardy.
36:49As in Kalimantan, the destruction of the habitat
36:52sometimes leaves orphaned orangutans.
36:56Though it is illegal to own one here as in Indonesia,
36:59villagers will sometimes keep a young animal as a pet.
37:08Officials of the Sabah Forest Service
37:10act quickly when they hear of an illegal orang
37:13and arrive to confiscate the young animal.
37:18Is this a wild orang?
37:25Captive orangutans are often found suffering from neglect,
37:28malnutrition and physical abuse.
37:31Fortunately, this one is in good condition.
37:49The captive orangs are brought here
37:51to the Sepilok Rehabilitation Center
37:53run by the Malaysian government.
37:55Some animals are confiscated from illegal owners.
37:58Some are injured by logging operations.
38:01Others are removed from cocoa estates
38:03for being destructive to crops.
38:05All the new arrivals are given a complete physical exam
38:08and thoroughly checked for injury and disease
38:10by the veterinary staff.
38:13Then the ex-captives are placed in a two-week quarantine
38:17to ensure that no diseases are transmitted
38:19to the other animals at the center.
38:22Sepilok's medical facility provides complete care.
38:25This animal arrived with a head injury.
38:28The veterinarian is able to treat it
38:30with the help of a specialist.
38:32The veterinarian is able to treat it
38:34with the help of a specialist.
38:36The veterinarian is able to treat it
38:38with the help of a specialist.
38:40This animal arrived with a head injury.
38:43Under anesthetics and tranquilizing drugs,
38:45the wound can be sutured to facilitate healing.
39:10X-rays reveal bones broken in falls of up to 100 feet.
39:14As many as 35% of all orangs have been found
39:17to have severe bone fractures at some time during their lives.
39:21Orangutans survive accidents
39:23that would shatter a human skeleton
39:25because of large, shock-absorbing pads
39:27of cartilage in their joints.
39:30Their bones ossify later in life than a human's
39:33and retain more resiliency for a longer time.
39:36In captivity, fractures heal,
39:38sometimes aided by pins and plates,
39:40in as little as 14 days.
39:48The rehabilitation center at Sepiloc
39:50is strikingly different from Dr. Galdikas' facility in Kalimantan,
39:54and the methods used at the two centers
39:56are as different as their appearance.
40:03Sepiloc cares primarily for very young orangutans
40:06and releases them into the wild as soon as possible.
40:09There are no adults to act as protectors and role models,
40:12and the young apes are kept in cages.
40:15Every day, however,
40:17they are loaded into the local version of a school bus
40:20and taken out to their jungle classroom.
40:25The Sepiloc philosophy and approach
40:27encourages the young animals to learn orangutan skills
40:30by trial and error, on their own,
40:32in a protected situation in the rainforest.
40:36Watch out.
41:06These young orangs cling to each other
41:08in a way they would never do in the wild.
41:10Without their mothers, they have a need for warmth and contact
41:13that only their fellow orphans can provide.
41:37Shh.
41:41Shh.
41:45All of these juveniles have been in captivity
41:48since they were very young,
41:50so before coming to Sepiloc,
41:52they had little or no experience in the wild.
41:55Searching for food, developing climbing skills,
41:57and surviving in the rainforest
41:59take a great deal of knowledge,
42:01usually learned over the period of years
42:03an orangutan spends with its mother.
42:05These orphans have a lot of catching up to do,
42:08and they can only do it in the jungle.
42:34Shh.
42:45Watching their incredible feats of agility and strength in the trees,
42:49it is somewhat difficult to accept
42:51that their muscles are not much different from our own.
42:54They owe their prowess in the forest
42:56to their long, powerful arms,
42:58huge, grasping hands,
43:00and a lifetime of conditioning.
43:03Shh.
43:06Shh.
43:26Shhh.
43:36Shh.
43:45After a hard morning's work,
43:47the young orangs rest for an hour or two,
43:50but a rainstorm brings the siesta to an early end.
44:00Rain comes most days to the forests of Borneo.
44:06Though orangutans don't generally care to be wet,
44:10they do take advantage of the easily accessible drinking water.
44:20And the water can be a source of great amusement as well.
44:24This one has located his own private pool.
44:36Shh.
44:48Finally, it's time to pull the plug.
44:57Occasionally, the ex-captive's daily routine
45:00is broken by the excited voices of other students.
45:03Schoolchildren from nearby Sendakan
45:05are sometimes brought to Sepilok to visit the orangutans.
45:09The human children get a first-hand look at their distant cousins
45:13and learn about the problems facing the endangered primates.
45:29These children, when they have grown,
45:31may very well be the people who make important decisions
45:34about the fate of all remaining wild orangutans.
46:01Bye-bye.
46:02Bye-bye.
46:03Bye-bye.
46:04Bye-bye.
46:05Bye-bye.
46:06Bye-bye.
46:07Bye-bye.
46:10Later in the afternoon, it's feeding time.
46:13In contrast to Dr. Galdikas' practice,
46:16these young orangutans are fed only minimal amounts,
46:19and they're fed in the jungle where natural food is also available.
46:23This reinforces their own food-gathering skills.
46:28Unlike the rather rich and delicious diet
46:31served the ex-captives in Kalimantan,
46:34the Sepilok orangs are fed a monotonous diet of milk and bananas
46:38so that they will look for more varied foods in the trees.
46:42When fruit in the forest is abundant,
46:45the human-supplied rations are cut back
46:47so that the animals are pushed to learn
46:49to depend on food they gather themselves.
46:58Mm-hmm.
47:01Once the food is brought them down from the trees
47:04and the day is coming to an end,
47:06it's time to get all the orangs back into the bus to head for home,
47:10a task which sounds much easier than it is.
47:51It takes great patience, but the bus is finally loaded.
47:57Mm-hmm.
47:59Mm-hmm.
48:25Back at the center, the young orangutans are put in their cages.
48:28This is largely for their own protection,
48:30as they may not yet be able to recognize
48:32and deal with danger in the wild.
48:38At one time, the cages were much more open and accessible.
48:42But one tragic night, this 18-foot python
48:45crawled through the widely spaced bars
48:47and swallowed two young orangutans.
48:49The snake was captured because its meal
48:51had made it too big to get back out through the bars.
48:54It is now kept confined to prevent a recurrence.
49:09Here, the orangutans are safe and dry,
49:12burlap bags providing cozy nesting material for their night's sleep.
49:25When the officials at Sepiloc determine that an orangutan
49:28has learned enough about the jungle to survive,
49:31they release it, usually three to five years
49:34after its arrival at Sepiloc.
49:37This isn't a simple matter of just opening the cage door
49:40and letting the animal go.
49:43Sepiloc has released over 1,000 orangutans
49:46in the last three years.
49:50Sepiloc has released over 100 rehabilitated orangutans
49:53to the forest.
49:55But there is no way of knowing what their survival rate is.
49:58The released orangutans range through the deep forest
50:01where they cannot be tracked.
50:03Some undoubtedly die.
50:05Others may be killed or captured.
50:07But some do thrive.
50:09Released orangutans have returned to the center.
50:12A couple of them were females
50:14carrying the young offspring of wild orangutans.
50:18Today is a special day.
50:21This young orangutan is led about a mile into the forest,
50:24far enough from the center to be truly in the wild.
50:28There, a safe platform has been constructed.
50:48It is a sad time for both the humans and the orangutan.
50:52They have known one another for several years,
50:55and doubtless the orangutan can sense
50:57that something is different about today.
51:13The graduates return to the center
51:16The graduating student is fed milk and bananas
51:19and encouraged to take to the trees.
51:45The men will return to bring food to the platform every day.
51:48But the orangutan can easily get better food in the forest.
51:51It will return for the bananas and milk for a while,
51:54perhaps for the company of the humans
51:56and the orangutans to enjoy.
51:58The orangutan is fed milk and bananas
52:01and encouraged to take to the trees.
52:04The men will return to bring food to the platform every day.
52:07But the orangutan can easily get better food in the forest.
52:10It will return for the bananas and milk for a while,
52:13perhaps for the company of the humans
52:16and the orangutans to enjoy.
52:21It returns as well, but less and less often.
52:45Finally, it will not bother to return at all.
52:48It will have learned to be self-sufficient.
52:54The hope is that it will live out the rest of its normal lifespan,
52:5730 years or more, in its wild new home.
53:19The plight of the wild orangutan has become a familiar refrain,
53:22but nonetheless poignant.
53:25As the human population of Borneo grows,
53:28our cousins in the trees may run out of places to live.
53:35The governments of Malaysia and Indonesia
53:38are setting aside preserves as untouchable wilderness habitats.
53:49But those who know the orangutans well, like Dr. Biruti Galdikas,
53:52worry that it might be too little, too late.
53:55The real situation is that even though
53:58there may be as many as 20 or 30,000 wild orangutans left in Borneo,
54:03orangutan habitat is disappearing very, very quickly.
54:0810 or 20 or 30 years ago,
54:11there were far more orangutans than there are now
54:14and there was far more tropical rainforest habitat.
54:19By the end of the 20th century,
54:22the only place where wild orangutans can live,
54:25unhampered,
54:28will be places like Tanjung Putih National Park.
54:31So by the end of the century,
54:34I suspect there really will be only
54:374 or 5,000 orangutans left in Borneo
54:40and only in protected areas.
54:43And once you get down to figures as low as 50,000,
54:46once you get down to figures as low as 4,000
54:49wild orangutans scattered
54:52over an area the size of Borneo,
54:55then you are dealing with a population
54:58that is decidedly on the edge of extinction.
55:07If the orangutans disappear,
55:10a precious link to our own past will also vanish,
55:13just as we are truly making contact.
55:34This program will be repeated Friday night at 1105.
55:37Front Street Weekly is next at 9
55:40to report on local police arming themselves
55:43with high-power weapons.
55:46It's TV worth watching.
56:10For a transcript of this program,
56:13send $4 to NOVA,
56:16Box 322, Borneo, Canada.
56:19For a transcript of this program,
56:22send $4 to NOVA,
56:25Box 322, Borneo, Canada.
56:40For a transcript of this program,
56:43send $4 to NOVA,
56:46Box 322, Borneo, Canada.
56:49For a transcript of this program,
56:52send $4 to NOVA,
56:55Box 322, Borneo, Canada.
57:10A companion book,
57:13NOVA Adventures in Science,
57:16published by WGBH
57:19and the Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,
57:22is available in libraries and bookstores nationwide.