Ryan has made excellent progress over the last 6 months. He maintains a healthy weight for his age, loves milk and food, and has strong arms and legs. He seems to have challenged himself to become a better climber and spends more time in the trees now. His co-ordination has improved and he enjoys exercising his newly developed brachiation skills.

During daily forest school, Ryan dashes into the trees to look for flexible branches or long vines. He swings around upside down or on one arm, clearly enjoying himself to the fullest, surrounded by his peers. Ryan is a very social orangutan. He loves to pal around and play fight with his friends. His caregivers joke that Ryan wants to lead his group but that he does not yet have the personality of a leader. In fact, he can be rather clumsy. This leads to some ironic situations. For example, Ryan may steal some food from another orangutan and then try to run away but instead stumbles on a stick on the forest floor. Ryan’s shenanigans and comedic reactions make him a real entertainer and very much endear him to his caregivers.

At the end of the day when forest school is coming to an end and the caregivers are slowly heading back, Ryan climbs down to the forest floor to see if he can quickly take a mud bath. Ryan loves water and he loves mud even more. He will find a pool of water, dig up the mud, and cover his whole body in it. When the puddle is big enough, he will even dive in head first! This scene is all the more entertaining because he chooses to do it right before heading back to his sleeping enclosure. His caregivers always hope that Ryan will wash the mud off himself, but since that never happens, he always gets a long individual scrub and shower when he returns to his sleeping quarters.

Ryan is on the right track to develop the skills he will need in the wild one day. But he is still young and has much to learn. We are curious to watch his progress over the next 6 months.

Click here to download Ryan’s August 2017 Foster Update