Carmen continues to thrive and remains a much-loved personality among her caregivers. She is healthy and full of bounce. The three words that her caregivers would use to describe her are brave, naughty, and smart. Carmen is full of confidence, curiosity, and energy, keeping everyone on their toes.

On Carmen’s Forest School releases, she can usually be found close to her caregivers. She is not the type of orangutan who likes to be left too far behind. Fear of missing out, aka FOMO, is a main motivator, especially if food is involved! She likes to know exactly where her caregivers are located and will happily travel back and forth with them, especially with Pak Rojan. Her caregivers adore her and spoil her with plenty of attention and admittedly with occasional healthy snacks. Carmen is polite. She rarely attempts to grab anything from caregivers’ pockets.

In the forest, Carmen is very active and adventurous. She climbs extremely high in the trees and moves confidently through the canopy. She is skilled at building nests and expertly constructs them although she tends to use them only briefly before continuing on her journey through the trees. This restless energy shows her strong curiosity about her surroundings. Carmen enjoys foraging and is particularly fond of fruit. She is also good at finding young leaves and enjoys enrichment activities such as opening rattan balls and parcels filled with peanuts. Enrichment activities clearly encourage her playful and clever nature.

Around the playground, Carmen is full of fun and mischief. She enjoys climbing, exploring, and sometimes splashing water, often making lively laps around the playground before heading back into the forest. At night Carmen shares her enclosure with Dodot, Summer, Maue-Kay, and Meli. She is comfortable with them even though she generally prefers to be on her own during the day rather than socialising with other orangutans.

Carmen is a confident, spirited young orangutan who balances independence with a strong bond to her caregivers but, ironically, doesn’t seem totally dependent on them. Watching her grow and develop continues to be a joy for everyone involved.

We are very grateful to you, her loyal, loving foster parents, for the concern and support that helped enable Carmen to come this far in what could have been a tragic fate after her mother was killed. Thank you very much. Our gratitude is boundless.

Click here to download Carmen’s February 2026 Foster Update