Sex: Male
Arrival Date: 26 March 2008
Approximate Age: Born July 2007
Previous History: Confiscated from a local villager in Tapanuli Selatan.
Care Centre: Batu Mbelin Orangutan Quarantine Centre, North Sumatra
Jarot was confiscated from a local villager in Tapanuli Selatan in March 2008. He almost certainly originates from the Batang Toru forests. Jarot is an interesting case. He is a very young animal, but has clear bumps and dents on his head, suggesting some major fracturing of his skull. It seems one of the plates on his skull is disconnected at one side, meaning that when eating and moving around the plate moves up and down. Consultation with medical experts, however, suggests that this ought not to be a serious problem in the long-term so surgery has been avoided. Aside from this, Jarot’s condition still causes some concern as his appetite and activity are less than might be expected for a similar aged infant in normal good health. However, he is slowly improving each day and we hope he will make a full recovery now that he is in better hands.
Despite being so young, Jarot is a confident and independent infant. He likes to play by himself and never cries, even when he is hungry. After some encouragement, he enjoys climbing in trees during his play and exercise periods. He receives milk six times a day and has started eating solid foods including pineapple, banana, orange and soursop. He sleeps inside at night and for his daytime naps. His carer has to stay with him until he falls asleep or he will grip hold of them tightly and not let go.
Jarot, now about 4 years of age is housed at the Open Orangutan Sanctuary and fed forest fruits and vegetables throughout the day. He loves all foods and like any toddler will shove anything and everything into his mouth. This openness to trying new foods will make his transition to the wild diet much smoother for Jarot who is now a healthy 20kg. During late afternoon he is given leaves so he can practice his nest building skills. Although he is very confident in the cage he needs to improve his nest making ability, and gain more confidence in the forest.
Jarot is shy and independent and is very happy on his own. As he is a good climber he loves to swing on the tyre rope or sit high up in the nesting basket. He enjoys swinging on the liana vines, throwing himself around like Tarzan. He is not close with people and is quite wary and nervous to leave his cage.
During Jarot’s first experience in jungle school we had to coax him out of the cage using bananas and pineapple, which he quickly grabbed and ran back to the cage. He then spent the next hour cleaning the roof of all the leaf litter and sharing it with his buddies in the cage below.
Jarot is very healthy and occasionally wrestles with Gokong, but he likes to keep his distance. Even though he was housed with Ayu a seven year old female he is quite a solitary infant and doesn’t cling to a best friend. This independence should set him in good stead for release.He has already made some great progress during his first few jungle school lessons and I think he will continue to improve in time.
