We have such exciting news to share about the adorable Happi at our BORA rescue centre in East Kalimantan.
Happi taking his first steps onto his new island home
He has moved to a pre-release island to complete the final stage of his rehabilitation! His friends Berani and Annie were also moved to the island with him.
Ten-year-old Happi has been in our adoption family for many years, and he has been a star student at Jungle School. He recently had to spend time in a quarantine cage before moving to the island. This was tough for Happi since being in quarantine meant no Jungle School. The keepers gave Happi and his friends extra enrichment to help keep them busy but nothing beats being free in the canopy for a young and adventurous orangutan like Happi. Happi weighs 22kg and his favourite foods are banana and papaya leaf and long beans. He also loves natural food enrichment like rattan and banana stem.
On the day of the transfer, Happi was moved from the quarantine cage into a transport box. This was the first time Happi had been in such a confined space. He stayed calm and seemed quite curious about what was going on. Happi, Berani and Annie were loaded onto our BORA vehicle and driven to the river. After a 45 minute drive, the transport boxes were then loaded onto a boat and they made their way to the nearby pre-release island. Happi came out of the box quickly and looked up into the canopy. It wasn’t long before Happi and his friends climbed the nearby trees and began to explore the island.
Happi and his friends will now spend time on the island building up their fitness and strength and rediscovering their skills that they developed over years at Jungle School. Once they have proven themselves on the pre-release island, they will then be released into the protected Busang ecosystem. We are so thrilled that Happi has reached this exciting stage of his journey. Thank you to all Happi’s adopters for making this possible.
