Hello everyone! I am so happy to be a part of the PDXWildlife team (Thank You to Meg for the very nice introduction & write-up!) and I am so excited to be writing my very first blog post! I have just recently returned from Indonesia and have much to share with you all! I would have loved to have been blogging along the way, but my phone would not cooperate and I had limited internet access, so time to catch up! For those of you who do not know me, I am a primatologist and study Javan gibbons, specifically with regards to rescue, rehabilitation, and reintroduction. This trip marked my fourth time visiting Indonesia and I have fallen even more in love with the country. The people are amazing; always so warm and welcoming. It is a country rich in biological diversity, cultural diversity, and the food is simply delicious (especially for us vegetarians)!! I have had so many fantastic adventures in my travels throughout Indonesia and I wish I could share them all with you, but I will just have to start with this most recent trip 🙂
I spent the first part of my trip at the Javan Primate Conservation Project (The Aspinall Foundation – Indonesia) and let me tell you, that place is Amazing! Made Wedana, who is the director, and his team are doing a fabulous job managing the center. JPCP is nestled in a small valley at the base of Patuha Mountain in Bandung, Indonesia. It is beautiful! The center is home to 12 Javan gibbons, two Javan langurs, and one grizzled leaf monkey-all of which were rescued from the illegal pet-trade. The enclosures are fantastic and all of the primates are given natural foliage & forest fruit daily for enrichment. The keepers really do a great job of making sure the primates are very well taken care of. Speaking of the keepers, who are all super fun and nice guys, they put me to work! They had me preparing food for the gibbons and feeding them, cleaning enclosures and climbing up in the enclosures for repairs, doing behavioral observations, as well as accompanying them to the forest for collection of natural foliage & fruit. We also did some sight-seeing along the way, which was awesome! Don’t worry, pictures will be up soon! I am also very happy to report that Made would welcome an intern to come and do a research project at JPCP, so stay tuned for details regarding that! I had such a wonderful time there and wished I could have stayed longer, but I was also really excited for the next part of my adventure: East Kalimantan in search of wild orangutans!
To be continued…
-Jaima