Sumatran Orangutan Hope Alive, Male Infant Dead, After Air Gun Attacks

Summary: Perhaps adoption of Sumatran orangutan orphans Brenda and Pertiwi by bereaved Sumatran orangutan Hope awaits rehabilitation at the same recovery center.

Sunday, March 17, 2019, photos of Hope by Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press: Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) @sumatranorangutan via Facebook March 12, 2019

Compassionate villagers, competent rescuers and conscientious doctors account for the auspicious assembly of the bereaved Sumatran orangutan Hope and the Sumatran orangutan orphans Brenda and Pertiwi in one animal-friendly, wildlife-sensitive recovery center.

Her month-old baby breathed his last as Natural Resources Conservation Agency rescuers bore him and Sumatran orangutan Hope away from Bunga Tanjung village March 10, 2019. Hope's bereavement, blindness, 74 air-gun wounds and sharp-tool lacerations caused Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme quarantine center staff in Subulussalam district, Aceh province, to consider care elsewhere. The Orangutan Information Centre conservation group's Human and Orangutan Conflict Response Unit members deposited the Sumatran orangutan Hope at the veterinary center in neighboring Sibolangit district.

Sumatran orangutan Hope exhibited double-pelleted right and quadruple-pelleted left eyes; fractured arms, collarbone, legs, skull and torso; and lacerated left finger, right arm and right leg.

Four-hour surgery March 17, 2019, by Andreas Messikommer, Stiftung PanEco volunteer doctor and Swiss orthopedist, fixed fractures, including Hope's fractured, infected collarbone, and found seven pellets.

That "We know she will be able to get through all of this, as she is one true fighter" guides veterinarian Yenny Saraswati's prognoses for Hope. Fractured right arms herded three-month-old Sumatran orangutan orphan Brenda March 11, 2019, and facially injured four-year-old Sumatran orangutan orphan Pertiwi March 21, 2019, into intensive care. Mature females, such as 30-year-old Sumatran orangutan Hope, interact intensively with their singletons, or twins, conceived December through May and live-birthed every six to eight years.

Brenda, Hope's month-old son and Pertiwi juggled 3.5- to 6.5-pound (1.59- to 2.95-kilogram) birth weights as big-eyed, sparse-haired newborns with long eyelashes and pink, soft-skinned faces.

Physically and sexually mature, 12- to 15-plus-old, 2.56- to 4.26-foot- (0.78- to 1.3-meter-) tall, 66.14- to 110.23-pound (30- to 50-kilogram) females know 227- to 275-day gestations.

Sixteen- to 18-plus-year-old, 110.23- to 198.42-pound (50- to 90-kilogram) males log 3.18- to 5.91-foot (0.97- to 1.8-meter) heights and 7.38-foot (2.25-meter) arm-spans right to left fingertips. Mature females and males, such as the Sumatran orangutan Hope, manifest gray faces, dark eye and pale nose surrounds and four-digit, short-thumbed, gray-padded feet and hands. The Pongo abelii (from Kongo mpongi, "great ape," for Clarke Abel, Sept. 5, 1780-Nov. 14, 1826), needs 118.11-inch (3,000-millimeter) annual rainfall and humidity near 100 percent.

Fig-loving Sumatran orangutans, observed by René-Primevère Lesson (March 20, 1794-April 28, 1849), overlap with temperatures between 62.6 and 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17 and 34.2 degrees Celsius).

The Hominidae (from Latin homō, "man" and Greek -ειδής, "resembling") great ape family member perseveres at 656.17- to 6,561.68-foot (200- to 2,000-meter) altitudes above sea level.

Mature females and males queue up respectively lower- and higher-ranging 295.28- to 10,006.56-plus-foot (90- to 3,050-plus-meter) day and 3.28- to 13.13-square-mile (8.5- to 34-plus-square-kilometer) home territories. They require mangrove, peat swamp, primary tropical and riparian forests with ants, bark, crickets, eggs, figs, flowers, fruits, grains, leaves, nuts, pith, seeds, termites and water. Agro-industrializing, collecting, farming, hunting, logging and oil palm and paper plantation-operating suggest the International Union for Conservation of Nature's critically endangered status for 7,500-plus Sumatran orangutans.

Upward post-surgery trends perhaps take the bereaved Sumatran orangutan Hope and Sumatran orangutan orphans Brenda and Pertiwi closer to post-recovery wildlife sanctuary life as a family.

Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii); Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra province, northwestern Sumatra, western Indonesia; January 2006: Tbachner (Thorsten Bachner), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Sunday, March 17, 2019, photos of Hope by Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press: Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) @sumatranorangutan via Facebook March 12, 2019, @ https://www.facebook.com/sumatranorangutan/posts/2849915041686149

Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii); Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra province, northwestern Sumatra, western Indonesia; January 2006: Tbachner (Thorsten Bachner), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orang-utan_bukit_lawang_2006.jpg

For further information:

Abel, Clarke. 1825. "Some Account of an Orang Outang of Remarkable Height Found on the Island of Sumatra, Together with a Description of Certain Remains of This Animal, Presented to the Asiatic Society by Capt. Cornfoot, and at Present Contained in Its Museum." Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society, Instituted in Bengal, for Enquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, and Sciences, and Literature of Asia. Volume XV: 489-498. Serampore: Mission Press.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ASgoAAAAYAAJ/page/n517

"About Orangutans." Sumatran Orangutan Society > Take Action > Learn about Orangutans.
Available @ https://www.orangutans-sos.org/take-action/learn/about-orangutans/

Associated Press. 18 March 2019. "Orangutan Blinded After Being Shot Dozens of Times with Air Gun." NBC Universal > News > World.
Available @ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/orangutan-blinded-after-being-shot-dozens-times-air-gun-n984426

Bakkara, Binsar; and Niniek Karmini. 18 March 2019. "Orangutan Blinded After Being Shot 74 Times with Air Gun." The Washington Post > World > Asia & Pacific.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/orangutan-blinded-after-being-shot-74-times-with-air-gun/2019/03/18/dad11170-497f-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html?utm_term=.eb53d13b3ef5

Bender, Kelli. 19 March 2019. "Mother Orangutan Named Hope Left Broken and Blind After Being Shot 74 Times with an Air Rifle." People > Pets.
Available @ https://people.com/pets/mother-orangutan-hope-blinded-air-rifle-indonesia/

Brito, Christopher. 19 March 2019. "Endangered Orangutan Blinded After Being Shot 74 Times with Air Gun in Indonesia." CBS News.
Available @ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sumatran-orangutan-indonesia-blind-shot-74-times-air-gun/

Fritz, Angela. 18 March 2019. "An Endangered Orangutan Was Shot 74 Times. She's Blind but Survived - Her Baby Did Not." The Washington Post > Science > Animals.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/03/19/an-endangered-orangutan-was-shot-times-shes-blind-survived-her-baby-did-not/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ffc968922d7f

Lesson, René-Primevère. 1827. "9e Espèce. Pongo D'Abel; Pongo Abelii." Manuel de Mammalogie, ou Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères: 32. Paris, France: Roret.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=BQenKWy-lm0C&pg=PA32

Long, Kristina Cawthon. 13 June 2005. "Primate Factsheets: Orangutan (Pongo) Taxonomy, Morphology, & Ecology." Primate Info Net > About the Primates > Primate Factsheets.
Available @ http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/orangutan

Metcalfe, Will. 20 March 2019. "Orangutan Rescued from Palm Oil Plantation Had 74 Rifle Pellets in Her Body." Yahoo! > Now.
Available @ https://www.yahoo.com/now/orangutan-rescued-palm-oil-plantation-74-air-rifle-pellets-body-140214077.html

"Orangutans." National Geographic > Animals > Mammals.
Available @ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/orangutans/

Shumaker, Robert W. "Sumatran Orangutan Pongo abelii." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 14, Mammals III: 237-238. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Singleton, I.; S.A. Wich; M. Nowak; G. Usher; and S.S. Utami-Atmosko. 2017. "Pongo abelii (errata version published in 2018)." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T121097935A123797627. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T121097935A115575085.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/121097935/123797627

Stack, Liam. 18 March 2019. "An Orangutan Named Hope Was Repeatedly Shot with an Air Rifle. She Was Blinded but Survived." The New York Times > World > Asia.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/world/asia/orangutan-shot-gun.html

"Sumatran Orangutan." AboutAnimals > Animals > Mammals.
Available @ https://www.aboutanimals.com/mammal/sumatran-orangutan/

"Sumatran Orangutan." World Wildlife Fund > Species > Orangutan.
Available @ https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/sumatran-orangutan

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) @sumatranorangutan. 21 March 2019. "[Breaking News] While the vet team is keep looking after Orangutan 'Hope' and Brenda after the surgery, today at Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) Quarantine and Rehabilitation Center, we received another young female orangutan named 'Pertiwi'. . . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/sumatranorangutan/posts/2872321956112124

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) @sumatranorangutan. 12 March 2019. "[Breaking News] Today at Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) we conduct medical check to a critical orangutan named "Hope" after a tragic rescue by the team of Orangutan Information Centre and BKSDA Aceh from Subulussalam city - Aceh Province. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/sumatranorangutan/posts/2849915041686149

"Sumatran Orangutans." Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme.
Available @ https://www.sumatranorangutan.org/sumatran-orangutans/

Wich, Serge A.; Ian Singleton; Matthew G. Nowak; Sri Suci Utami Atmoko; Gonda Nisam; Sugesti Mhd. Arif; Rudi H. Putra; Rio Ardi; Gabriella Fredriksson; Graham Usher; David L. A. Gaveau; and Hjalmar S. Kühl. 4 March 2016. "Land-Cover Changes Predict Steep Declines for the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii)." Science Advances 2(3): e1500789. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500789.
Available @ http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/3/e1500789