It is sheer poetry watching Carmen swinging high up in the trees. She has a poise and élan that her fellow orangutans often lack. Carmen as ever doesn’t like to keep her feet on the ground for too long, preferring the heady heights of the canopy.

There are several instances where she will come back down to terra firma. First and very ladylike, she prefers to come down and go to the toilet on the ground, seemingly not wanting to soil the tree she is on. Like clockwork she does this on most Forest School releases. Second, she has been observed playing with leaves and branches on the ground in what looks like nest making activity. This is somewhat ironic since nests are usually meant to be up in the trees! Why she chooses to come down to the ground to do this is a mystery. Nesting and being up in the canopy should not be mutually exclusive and hopefully she will make the connection soon. Back up in the trees she does enjoy grabbing the older, larger yellow leaves and using them as a fan to cool off on a swelteringly hot day, so we suspect that nest making in the trees is sure to follow.

Carmen prefers to go deeper into the Learning Forest where the canopy is thicker and provides more shade. She prefers to keep to herself but sometimes boisterous little male Vytas will enter her orbit and Carmen appears to tolerate his presence, as long as he doesn’t get too close.

She has low tolerance for those she doesn’t know. Sun bear cubs are also present at OFI’s Care Centre and during their daily releases they will sometimes drift over to the released orangutans. Carmen will not abide this and has shown her displeasure in the past. She will climb down from the trees and has even tapped one of the cubs on the back in order to shoo him away. In the wild, adult orangutans and sun bears tend to ignore and/or avoid one another.

There is still much for Carmen to learn and skills to foster. It is a long road, but she will make it there in the end. We look forward to updating you in the coming months.

Click here to download Carmen’s February 2020 Foster Update