Tommy is growing and is now becoming a young boy, having started to lose his puffy baby cheeks. He has progressed well with forest school over the past few months. He has not lost his calm and loving nature towards his caregivers, but is relying on them less for love and affection.

In the past Tommy would regularly come down from the trees for cuddles with his caregivers, but this is almost absent now as he becomes immersed and interested in his forest environment, venturing deeper and higher into OFI Enrichment Forest in search of his favourite fruits. He possesses excellent skills for such a young orangutan. During one forest school session he and his enclosure mates were taken to a new section of the swamp. While the others seemed daunted by the experience, Tommy was automatically off exploring, pulling out new grass shoots from the puddles in the swamp and happily chewing on the soft sweet bases of the grass. After he had his fill of grass shoots, he climbed one of the tallest trees in the forest without any hesitation. Tommy casually scaled the 30 metre tree, working his way up by climbing the vines along its trunk. Tommy remained at the top of the tree exploring for over an hour, his small body size dwarfed by the tree. The occasional falling fruit skins and bits of bark let the caregivers know Tommy was still up there having fun. The other orangutans on the ground checked out the falling pieces of fruit for leftovers, but that wasn’t enough motivation for them to venture up and join brave Tommy.

When in his sleeping enclosure, Tommy shows his affectionate side by always climbing down to greet his caregivers at the side of his enclosure. Just before bed, when the orangutans are given branches to build their sleeping nests, Tommy always wrestles to grab a big bundle before climbing up to his favourite spot where he then breaks, folds and pats the branches and leaves down into a comfortable sleeping position. Tommy learnt his nest building skills over a year ago from another orangutan, Moksha, from his previous enclosure. Moksha was very good at making nests and Tommy was sat there watching her every move and testing out the nest when she was done. Now Tommy serves as an unintentional teacher to his current enclosure mates, passing on his forest skills to them as they try and imitate their skilled friend. Tommy’s adaptability to the environment around him is a key skill for his rehabilitation. It shows his wild instincts are strong and these will no doubt serve him well for years to come as he progresses through the rehabilitation program.