Koling is one of the smallest orangutans at Camp Danielle amongst, sadly, a growing number of baby orphans. His joie de vivre is unparalleled as he takes his first steps into a larger world. He is still too young to fully engage with the Camp Danielle playground, but he has gotten to grips with the netting hung across it. He is an orange ball of fuzz as he rolls around. He enjoys hanging, sitting, and walking from one end of the net to the other. Here he is joined by another small baby orangutan, Sugar. The pair roll around together and wrestle with each other, ensuring they both develop vital cognitive and physical skills at an early age. His primary caregiver watches closely over Koling. He is still very close with her and cries out it if there isn’t a caregiver nearby. Other bigger orangutans come over to initiate play with him and Koling, in his innocence, doesn’t realise how much bigger they are. He is game for a grapple with them but his caregivers know when to step in before things get too rough.

If there are too many orangutans around Koling is taken to a small tree in which to play. He usually picks leaves and nibbles at them before tossing them aside. As he attempts to walk by himself Koling is a little unsteady on his feet, wobbling like a bowling pin that won’t quite fall down. He is much faster when crawling. At one point Koling was crawling along the wooden boardwalk near the camp, and he came across a round dried fruit. As he attempted to grab the fruit, it kept rolling away from him. After several attempts Koling finally grabbed it and put the whole fruit into his mouth. His mouth is almost as big as his appetite. We have yet to find a fruit that Koling dislikes. However, at the moment we focus on feeding him easily digestible foods like bananas and watermelons.

Koling’s journey is just beginning. He has already displayed his curiosity, tenacity, and fun-loving side. We are excited to see what else we have yet to experience together.

Click here to download Koling’s February 2023 Foster Update