'My best pri-mate': Schoolgirl, 6, who is best friends with an orangutan forced to say goodbye as he is now too powerful for her

By ELEANOR HARDING

Firm friends: Six-year-old Emily Bland and Rishi the Orangutan pose for one last picture together at his home in South Carolina

Some childhood playmates turn out to be friends for life. For others, there comes a time when they simply outgrow each other.
For most of their six years on the planet, Emily Bland and Rishi the orangutan have been an unlikely double act – enjoying picnics, games and the occasional rough and tumble.
But now, they are being forced to, well, grow apart, because Rishi’s keepers think he will soon be too big and powerful to play with his human friend.

Going ape: Playful Rishi srays water at a giggling Emily as the two of them cool off in his pool

Emily, from St Albans in Hertfordshire has visited her friend in South Carolina several times since they were introduced in 2008

At 4st 9lb, the orangutan is already able to pick up a fully-grown human, and his weight is expected to double within 18 months.
Back in 2008 when they met, the pair were barely two years old and Emily was much bigger than Rishi.
They were introduced at an animal reserve in the US when Emily’s photographer father, Barry, took his daughter along on an assignment.

Partners in crime: Emily and Rishi play together as two-year-olds back in 2008

Stick by me: The chums pictured together again aged four in 2010

You drive me bananas: Emily gives Rishi a hand with his favourite snack

Growing lad: At 4st 9lb, the orangutan is already able to pick up a fully-grown human, and his weight is expected to double within 18 months

Rishi and Emily stunned everyone with their instant rapport, and since then Mr Bland, 42, has taken his daughter on several trips to visit her friend.
This time, the pair were reunited for one last picnic at Rishi’s home in South Carolina and played for hours in the sunshine.
Emily, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, made sure Rishi had his lunchtime banana before they splashed about in a fountain.

Monkey business: Emily giggles as her Orangutan chum larks around with a cup

Catching up: Back in 2008 when they met, the pair were barely two years old and Emily was much bigger than Rishi

Fond farewell: The pair were reunited for one last picnic at Rishi's home in South Carolina and played for hours in the sunshine

Cheers: Emily, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, made sure Rishi had something to drink before they splashed about in a fountain

The pair were introduced at an animal reserve in the US when Emily's photographer father, Barry, took his daughter along on an assignment

source: dailymail

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Cuddles with mother: Adorable endangered orangutan is the first to be born in Devon zoo for 18 years

By SAM WEBB

Motherly love: The baby girl snoozes in her mother's arms at Paignton Zoo in Devon

A newborn orangutan cuddles up and nestles in its mother’s arms as it enjoys a nice snooze in the sunshine.
The little ape, less than a month old, appears to content in its mothers strong arms.
The 18-year-old mother, Mali, poses for the camera with her baby at her home at Devon's Paignton Zoo.

On the brink: Orangutans are at risk because of human encroachment into their territory, notably by palm oil producers

It was the first birth at the zoo for 18 years and workers are confident that the baby ape is a girl.
Phil Knowling, a spokesperson for the zoo, said the the pair are doing well after the birth.
He said: 'We are pretty sure it’s a girl. Keepers are 99.9 per cent sure that the baby, now a month old, is female.
'Mali and the baby are doing well. They have the largest of the orangutan islands and even have an off show den to themselves.

Around 55,000 Borean orangutans live in the wild, and a number are in preservation programmes throughout the world

'We hope that visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of the youngster, which will become more mobile over the coming months.'
The pair are Bornean orangutans and they have suffered declines where the population is estimated to just be 50,000.

source: dailymail

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Mummy's little girl: Emma the orangutan holds newborn daughter close after giving birth at Chester Zoo

Proud mother: Emma, a Sumatran orangutan, looks at the camera as she cradles her newborn daughter

This baby orangutan may have been born in captivity but that hasn't stopped her mother from holding her close.
Emma, the Sumatran orangutan, gave birth to her daughter three days ago and has not let her out of her sight since.
The, as yet unnamed, newborn is the latest addition to the Realm of the Red Ape exhibit at Chester Zoo which houses a group of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.

Emma who was also born at the zoo, in 1987, gazes lovingly at the newest addition to the family

These adorable images show the tenderness and love that Emma bestows on her daughter.
She cradles her newborn in her arms while looking proudly at the camera before another photograph captures her gazing lovingly at the baby orangutan.
Not one for missing the action, however, the infant manages to poke her head out from underneath her mother's fur to see what is going on around her.
She looks straight at the lens before something catches her attention and she looks away.

Peek-a-boo! Emma holds her unnamed three-day-old baby close to her body at Chester Zoo

Sumatran orangutans originally come from the Island of Sumatra in Indonesia and live in tropical and subtropical forests in the lowlands as well as in mountainous areas up to a height of 1500m.
When fully grown, they can measure up to 1.4 metres tall and weigh up to 90 kilogrammes.
Orangutans are the only great ape found outside of Africa.
Their numbers in the wild have decreased from more than 12,000 in the mid 1990s to just 6,500 in recent years.

A mother's love: The unnamed baby orangutan gazes up at the camera from the safety of it's mother's protective embrace

source: dailymail

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But mum, I don't need a bath! Adorable orphan ape Mr Bernie, two, does all he can to avoid getting his fur wet

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

I'm the king of the swimmers: Two-year-old Mr Bernie - one of 330 orphaned apes at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine in Borneo - will do just about anything to avoid taking a plunge

As generations of parents will gladly testify, bath time often turns into a battleground when toddlers are involved.
And as these adorable pictures show, it’s not just human babies who get all steamed up when it’s time to take a dip.
Two-year-old Mr Bernie — one of 330 orphaned apes at the Orangutan Care Centre and Quarantine in Borneo — will do just about anything to avoid taking a plunge. With four strong hands able to firmly grasp the sides of the bath, getting him into the warm, soapy water can be a soggy struggle.

Not happy: In the wild, orangutans usually shy away from water, preferring to keep themselves clean through picking out bugs and dirt with their long fingers. But at the orphanage there are no ape mums to help out

In the wild, orangutans usually shy away from water, preferring to keep themselves and their babies clean through picking out bugs and dirt with their long fingers. But at the orphanage there are no ape mums to help out.
Some toddler apes — such as Charlie, pictured here in a green towel — are fans. Mister Bernie, however, is not. He was brought to the orphanage in July 2010.
A spokesman from the centre said: ‘He was a scrawny, scared little thing with hair matted from sticky sap. After a long bath, some motherly attention, and countless bananas, Mr Bernie started thriving in his new home. He is now strong, healthy and handsome.’

Care: The centre was set up in 1998 to help orphaned and rescued orangutans learn the skills they need to live independently in the wild

The centre was set up in 1998 to help orphaned and rescued orangutans learn the skills they need to live independently in the wild.
Located in the village of Pasir Panjang near Tanjung Puting National Park, a team of surrogate human mums live with the youngsters day and night.
Each day, the orphans are taken into the 200 acre forest surrounding the centre where they forage, play and hunt, carefully watched by their carers.

Under wraps: Some toddler apes - such as Charlie, pictured (right) - are fans. Mr Bernie (left), however, is not

source: dailymail

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Heartrending moment tiny, terrified orangutan baby is plucked to safety after he and his mother were found starving

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

At risk: A distressed baby orangutan is picked up by a charity worker as he and his mother are taken to safety from an isolated patch of forest in Sumatra caused by the spread of oil plantations

Wide-eyed in fright, a baby orangutan tries his best to escape the clutches of a looming man.
He and his mother have been threatened with starvation by the expansion of palm oil plantations which are destroying their natural habitat in the Sumatran forest.
It's no surprise the sight of yet more humans has terrified them, but these ones have arrived to take them to safety.

Cruel to be kind: The mother is attended to by medics after being tranquilised up a tree and falling into a net while clutching her baby

The pair were found by rescuers in an isolated patch of woodland which was due to be cleared for more plantations.
More orangutans are being cut off, putting them at risk of food shortages or being captured for the pet trade.
Hanna Adcock was making a film for the UK charity Orangutan SOS when their partner organisation, the Orangutan Information Centre’s Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit attempted the relocation in Aceh, North Sumatra.
She said: 'The safest way to save these animals is to tranquilize them and relocated them to a safe area.

Tricky operation: The rescuers had to track the orangutans through the trees before picking the right place and time to fire the tranquiliser gun

'In this instance, the team first had to track and find the orangutan and move them to safer, less-dense area in order to be tranquilised.
'Rescues often take a long time and they are extremely tiring as the team have to keep up pace on the ground through streams, mud and vines whilst the orangutan swing quickly in the canopy trees.
'The team make noises to try and steer the orangutan into their desired location and there were spotters on the ground and up in the hills in order to ensure that we didn’t lose her.'

Conflict of two species: The mother had two air rifle bullets under her skin, suggesting she had already been in contact with hostile humans

When the team finally got the chance, they shot the mother with a tranquiliser gun, but it took little effect so they had to wait until she tired enough to hit her again, this time with a blow pipe.
Hanna said: 'The mother was aggressive and struggled to hold on with everything she could as she grew weaker in the tree.

Ravaged: Experts believe around two million hectares of forest cover are burned down or cleared for oil plantations in Indonesia each year

'As she was carrying a young male baby, the team believed she resisted falling and letting go even more as she thought that the fall would kill the baby.
'The team positioned themselves underneath her on a steep hill carrying a large net, moving together in order to predict where she might fall.
'Eventually, the struggle was too much for the mother and she fell into the net.'

source: dailymail

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'Pumpkin knows something is up': Orangutan pines for her cancer-stricken twin sister Peanut as she becomes first in the world to undergo chemotherapy

By EMILY ANNE EPSTEIN and ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER

An orangutan called Peanut, suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, has become the first in the world to be treated with aggressive chemotherapy just like a human.
Peanut, who lives together with her fraternal twin Pumpkin at Miami's Jungle Island, has received numerous treatments to combat the aggressive lymphoma since August.
Pumpkin is not sick, but she knows something is wrong with her sister.

Sisters: Peanut, an eight-year-old orangutan with a fraternal twin sister named Pumpkin, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but she's got a fighting chance at beating the disease as she is the first orangutan to be treated with chemotherapy like a human

Both are highly intelligent and have been taught to use sign language and an iPad to communicate with their trainers, but doctors have found it difficult to fully explain the cancer to Peanut or Pumpkin.
''I cant speak for what Pumpkin knows, but she most likely can sense that there's something is different with her sister,' veterinarian Jason Chatfield, Jungle Island's general curator, told MailOnline.

Help: In this Sept. 5, 2012 photo, Jungle Island volunteer Linda Jacobs comforts Peanut, one of the orangutans from a private zoo, as she is treated with R-CHOP therapy, a combination of drugs used in chemotherapy to treat her aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Miami

Peanut's diagnosis came by chance when her veterinary team found she had an intestinal obstruction and further testing revealed the cancer.
The private zoo had no board certified veterinary oncologist on staff and turned to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
A team there, along with UM's Division of Comparative Pathology, which specializes in wildlife, confirmed the diagnosis and is now providing guidance for Peanut's treatment.

Tired: Peanut is highly intelligent and has been taught to use sign language and an iPad to communicate with her trainers, but doctors have found it difficult to fully explain the cancer to her

First: Human medical specialists are treading new ground in applying a standard chemotherapy regimen to treat cancer in an orangutan

'I've never had the same combination of fear and enthusiasm in one patient before,' said Dr. Joseph Rosenblatt, one of the doctors treating Peanut.
'We don't know what to expect and yet we're intensely curious and potentially hopeful that we can help the animal.'
Working on an orangutan is a first for Rosenblatt, who has never worked on an animal larger than a mouse.

Babies: Born in captivity, Peanut and Pumpkin came to the zoo when they were six months old

source: dailymail

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Surgery on blind orangutan allows her to see her baby twins for the first time (along with their father)

By NINA GOLGOWSKI

Surgery: Gober, a 40-year-old Sumatran orangutan is seen during cataract surgery on Monday in the provincial capital of Medan

A formerly blind Sumatran orangutan has been given a remarkable gift of being able to see her baby twins for the very first time after undergoing cataract surgery in the first such operation in Indonesia.
Prior to her surgery on Monday afternoon, Gober, a 40-year-old orangutan, had spent at least the last four years blind due to cataracts leading to her capture in North Sumatra province in late 2008 by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP).
‘If we hadn't brought her here she would have been killed by local farmers, as she was raiding their crops to survive,' SOCP veterinarian drh Yenny Sarasqati said in a press release.

Monumental: The surgery, conducted by a human eye specialist, was Indonesia's first on an orangutan though the first ever was in Malaysia in 2007

Performed in the provincial capital of Medan, the 90-minute cataract surgery conducted by a human eye specialist from Samarinda was Indonesia’s first on an orangutan. The surgery comes just several years after the very first one was performed on an orangutan in Malasyia in 2007.
While Gober’s first moments with her awaiting babies has yet to be reported by the SOCP, it is at least somewhat known what’s awaiting her.

Unconditional love: Gober is seen after the birth of her twins, a boy and a girl pictured with her in 2011 though then without the ability to see them

While in captivity, to help ease her life in darkness, the conservation program allowed her to breed with another orangutan named Leuser, who as it happened, is also blind.
'[We] felt that being blind, it would dramatically improve her quality of life,' said Sarasqati of their decision which she admitted was rare being that there are already many orangutans in captivity in Indonesia.

Family: Gober's two babies Ginting and Ganteng are pictured with her at the quarantine center run by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programm prior to her surgery on Monday

Coming out of surgery this week Gober returned to the responsibilities of mom to the now 18-month-old twins named Ganteng - a boy whose name means handsome in Indonesian - and Ginting - a little girl.
The program said that twin births by orangutans are not unheard of, though coming from two blind parents - in the words of Dr Ian Singleton, head of SOCP - it was 'totally unique.'

Hope: Veterinarians allowed Gober to mate hoping to increase her quality of life after, until this week, spending her last four years in darkness

Father: The father of Gober's children, Leuser, who's pictured, is also blind after suffering an air rifle attack that lodged 62 pellets into him, making him a permanent resident at the program

After twice released from captivity prior to the air rifle attack - in hopes of his successful adaption into the wild - Leuser will be a permanent resident with the SOCP, along with Gober. Their babies, once fully grown, however, will be released into the wild the program reports.
Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered, with only about 6,600 left in the wild.
The program reports Germany's Orang-Utans in Not (Orangutans in Peril) foundation as having covered the logistical costs for Gober’s surgery.

Tragic end: An x-ray shows the pellets lodged into just Leuser's head alone after a group of villagers attacked him following his second attempt by the program to release him into the wild

source: dailymail

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Orangutan 'killers' on trial over slaughtering primates for pest control at palm oil plantation

By DAMIEN GAYLE

Saved: British charity workers arrived just in time to save this pair of orangutans

Four men went on trial today accused of killing orangutans and other endangered primates at a palm oil plantation in Borneo.
Phuah Chuan Hun, manager of the plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, and his employee Widiantoro paid two men to kill the primates, prosecutors claimed.
They and the two alleged killers, Imam Muhtarom and Mujianto, face five years each in jail if found guilty of the charge of killing endangered species.

Right to left, Malaysian Phuah Chuan Hun sits next to Indonesian Widiantoro, Imam Muhtarom and Mujianto during their trial in Tenggarong, East Kalimantan earlier today

According to news agency AFP, Prosecutor Suroto told the court: 'The two men were paid one million rupiah (£70) for each orangutan and 200,000 rupiah (£14) for other monkeys.
'The two used a 4.5-millimetre calibre airsoft gun to shoot the orangutans out of trees before their six hunting dogs chased them.'
The prosecutor claimed Muhtarom and Mujianto would then club the orangutans with rocks or wooden sticks before binding their corpses and taking photographs as evidence.

Slaughtered: Dead orangutans hang from a wooden tower at a palm oil plantation in East Kalimantan province on Indonesia's Borneo island

All four were arrested in November after photos of them with the slaughtered primates, which included long-nosed monkeys found only in Borneo, were circulated by local villagers.
They were charged with killing one baby and two adult orangutans.
However police believe that at least 20 had been killed after seeing receipts from the company amounting to 25million rupiah (£1,762).

Bloody work: Indonesian worker Imam Muhtarom pictured at the plantation holding dead monkeys, right. Left, an Indonesian worker looks at a captured orangutan

There are only 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, experts say, with 80 per cent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.
Poaching and destruction of their forest habitat to clear the ground for palm oil and paper plantations are driving the animals to extinction.
The trial, at Tenggarong district court, continues.
It comes two weeks after British-based international animal rescue group Four Paws saved a mother and baby orangutan from near certain death when they were circled by another set of Borneo bounty hunters.
The dramatic pictures, below, showed the knife-wielding hunters entrapping the pair in a circle and moving in for a kill.

Savage: Two Indonesian workers recover a dead orangutan at the plantation in this picture circulated to journalists by concerned local villagers

Rescue: When the animal rescue group found the 'clearly petrified' mother and baby they discovered a gang of young men who were looking to cash in on the palm oil companies' offer of £70 per orang-utan

source: dailymail

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Who's apeing who? The incredible images that show us jus

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Me? Bored? What gives you that idea? The look in his eyes says it all and how like a human this little fella is as he takes it easy in his home habitat of The Congo

It's been proven that humans are 97 per cent similar to our primate cousins .. but these amazing photographs seem to underline that statistic.
British wildlife photographers Anup Shah and Fiona Rogers captured the intriguing portraits while on assignment in Borneo and Indonesia.
And the lighthearted collection, which captures the likes of chimpanzees, orangutans, baboons and bonobos in the wild, shows that it's not just use humans who like to monkey around.

I feel a little .. sleepy: Bornean Orangutan Petra looks just like a tired baby underlining our similarities with primates

The photographers have spent the past year travelling the world to capture the stunning images of some of the planet's most elusive primates.
And though their subjects may be rare it's clear that they are genetically very close to us, sharing 97% of our DNA.

What's a monkey to do? A forlorn Doyok from Indonesia looks like he is wrestling with some of life's biggest woes.

What! You think I need a haircut? Twelve month old Petra looks as though he has been taken by surprise, it's an expression which we can all say we've seen before.

Having a little scratch: The balding baby hanging on to its mother tackles an itch but seems preoccupied with something else entirely

source: dailymail

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