UNTAN learns about Gunung Palungsavegporangutans.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Vol-57...I went into detail about Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP), why it is such a special place,

Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program

September 2017

Code REDAn e-newsletter from your friends in West Kalimantan

Dear Friends and Supporters, With summer behind us and Fall arriving, I have been busy with a newsemester of lectures, lab work and advising students. It is exciting toshare some of GPOCP's success stories with my Boston Universitystudents and motivate them to better understand orangutans, thethreats they face, and the ways they can contribute to orangutanand rainforest conservation.

This past month we have also been busy spreading awareness tostudents and villages throughout West Kalimantan about ourconservation and research programs. The leadership staff at GPOCPand the research station all traveled to Pontianak, the capital of WestKalimantan, to give presentations to students and faculty atTanjungpura University (UNTAN). That was followed by our ResearchDirector and Program Director giving presentations in the local villagessurrounding Gunung Palung National Park about the work we do.With all of this news being shared in Indonesia, we thought we wouldalso share it with our friends all over the world in this month's articles!

On our side bar we would like to congratulate our Operations

Issue: 57

In This Issue:

UNTAN learns about

Gunung PalungOpportunities

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Bringing Research to theVillage

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GPOCP Family is Growing

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Eid Adha

Coordinator on his recent marriage and give our best wishes to everyonewho celebrated a wonderful Eid Al-Adha. Sincerely,

Cheryl Knott, PhDExecutive Director Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (GPOCP)

UNTAN learns about Gunung Palung OpportunitiesBy Terri Breeden, GPOCP Program Director

Last Tuesday, I traveled with Brodie Philp, theProject OH Research Manager, and Beth Barrow, theKKL Research Manager, to Pontianak. OnWednesday, we were scheduled to givepresentations to students and faculty about ourconservation and research activities atTanjungpura University (UNTAN). This university actsas our research sponsor, ensuring collaborationbetween researchers, university students andprofessors. UNTAN supports our researchers bygiving the proper letters and permits needed forforeigners to do research in Indonesia. GPOCP andKKL assist UNTAN students and professors byproviding guidance and support to gain theirpermits to enter the park, transportation,equipment, and scientific advice on projectdevelopment and methodology. Our presentationswere designed to inform the faculty and studentsabout our programs and to facilitate futurecollaborations.

Wednesday morning we all awoke early and hadbreakfast with our Research Director, Wahyu. Afterbreakfast, we headed to UNTAN. I must admit, I wasnervous about giving a presentation to so manypeople and in a foreign language. As we walked intothe room I felt overwhelmed. It was packed withnearly 100 people, but my nerves started to cool asI recognized so many faces. I was greeted by Dedyand Mita, two of our BOCS (Bornean OrangutanCaring Scholars). We were given a wonderfulintroduction by Pak Riyandi, a lecturer, and PakMuliadi, the Assistant Dean of Mathematics andNatural Sciences.

GPOCP Family isGrowing

Recently our OperationsCoordinator tied the

knot! We would like tocongratulate Reno

Suryandi and his wifeEtty on their matrimony.

Eid Al-Ahda

September 1st markedEid Al-Adha, a muslim

holiday celebratingremembrance and

sacrifice. We wish allcelebrating a wonderful

holiday.

Beth Barrow and Terri Breeden listening to the opening remarksbefore the presentations. Photo © GPOCP

I was up first to present. I went into detail aboutGunung Palung National Park (GPNP), why it is such aspecial place, and the major threats to orangutansand the habitat in and around GPNP, includinglogging, mining, fires, and people killing motherorangutans to steal their babies to keep as pets.But the photos with the most impact, where I heardlots of wows and ahhs, were of the scale of oilpalm plantations in the area. I then explained howwe have been working in this landscape for nearly20 years. Our Environmental Education andConservation Awareness team hosts week longexpeditions to remote villages four times per year,we host weekly radio shows, publish countlessconservation articles in print and social media,visit local schools, host field trips, youth groupactivities, and of course, our BOCS programsupported by Orang Utan Republik Foundation. OurSustainable Livelihoods team works with localcommunity groups to promote alternative, yetsustainable, career paths. We have artisan groupsmaking handicrafts, organic farming, andaquaculture. This program targets the mostvulnerable and works with them one-on-one todevelop their skills to deter them fromenvironmentally destructive livelihoods. I alsodiscussed our Customary Forest and WildlifeInvestigation Team. We recently secured nearly7,500 hectares in five villages as Customary Forestand are routinely working with the ManagementBoards to develop their capacity to sustainablymanage these forests and maintain their incrediblebiodiversity (as mentioned in last months article!)Our investigation team spends a lot of time in thefield searching for people who have illegally heldanimals. The participants were also quite shocked

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"To say nothing, todo nothing, stops

nothing"

-Roni McCall-

seeing such magnificent wildlife locked up in cages.

An orangutan kept illegally as a pet and rescued because ofinvestigation work by GPOCP. Photo © GPOCP

Next to present was Brodie. He talked about theresearch occurring at Cabang Panti for Project OH(short for Orang (H)utan). He started with anintroduction about orangutans and their currentstatus as critically endangered, and how CabangPanti Research Station was established in 1983 andhas eight distinct habitat types with 60 kilometersof trails through those habitats. He described someof the difficulties in studying wild orangutans, suchas their elusive behavior hiding in the tree tops,and went into more detail about how and why wetake the samples that we do. These samplesinclude urine for hormone analysis, feces forparasites, fruit and plant samples to determinenutrient consumption, as well as behaviors, such astheir location in the tree and body position. Healso spoke about the many UNTAN students whohave come to do their own research at CabangPanti.

A young orangutan trying to be elusive in the tree tops of GunungPalung National Park. Photo © GPOCP

Beth Barrow followed Brodie to present about theKKL Project. We are often asked what is KKL, itstands for Kelasi and Kelempiau, which is the RedLeaf Monkey and the Bornean Agile Gibbon in BahasaIndonesia. This project focuses on ecologicalsystems including distribution and populations ofboth plants and animals. The KKL Project alsorecords temperature and rainfall at 12 weatherstations positioned strategically over the tworidges of Mount Palung and Mount Panti. It is veryinteresting to see the differences in rainfall andother variables between each station consideringtheir relative close proximity! Beth explained theirfive different methods used in the field (phenology,camera traps, census routes, behavioral followsand weather stations), all aimed at collecting dataon factors limiting vertebrate population dynamicsin GPNP. One of the most interesting aspects ofthe KKL Project, and their most recent addition asof 2015, is their camera trap program. She includedsome interesting footage of elusive species thathad never been recorded at Cabang Panti before. Beth then went on to outline some results fromtheir research into gibbon and leaf monkeypopulation dynamics and the factors limiting them. Specifically, those habitats over 800 meters inelevation are of extremely low quality for thesetwo primate species. Populations there wouldlikely cease to exist if it weren't for immigration

from the lowland habitats.

A mother pangolin carrying her baby on her tail recorded at Cabang

Panti Research Station in Gunung Palung National Park, West

Kalimantan, Indonesia. Video courtesy of Project KKL.

We ended the presentation with a quick review ofhow the students can work with us and conductresearch at Cabang Panti. We also held a questionand answer session with some intriguing inquiriesabout each program that we were all happy toanswer. It was exciting to see such enthusiasticstudents and we hope everyone went away betterinformed about our conservation and researchprojects. We look forward to continuing our workwith our current students and hope thesepresentations inspired a new generation ofstudents to study conservation and to conductwildlife research.

The project managers with some of the students after thepresentations. Photo © GPOCP.

Bringing Research to the VillageBy Wahyu Susanto, GPOCP Research Director

Cabang Panti Research Station is often thought ofas this mystical place. The research station is notopen to tourists, so even though many people haveheard of it, few have actually been to Cabang Panti.So this month we decided to bring the researchstation to the villages! We wanted to let the localcommunities know about the research that is beingconducted and how it is being used to makeconservation decisions for orangutans and theirhabitat. We focused on three of the villagessurrounding Gunung Palung National Park with whichwe interact the most - Tanjung Gunung, SedahanJaya, and Teluk Melano. We gave presentationsabout the research activities, showed short filmsabout orangutans, and held question and answersessions to clarify any confusion about whatactually occurs at Cabang Panti Research Station(CPRS).

Cabang Panti Research Station located in the heart of GunungPalung National Park. Photo © Tim Laman.

Although researchers have been working at CPRSfor over 30 years, very few villagers around thePark have actually been there, and fewer knowabout the activities we are doing. This has led tomany questions from local residents. They oftensee a flux of strangers coming through their villageto get to the National Park. On the other hand,there are some residents who are somewhat

familiar with our activities, but they did notunderstand why we do behavioral follows and datacollection on wild orangutans. To address theseissues, we held these community discussions in thethree villages that we primarily work with. It wasalso a great opportunity to spread awareness andknowledge about orangutans and their currentplight on the IUCN Critically Endangered List.

Critically endangered orangutans of Gunung Palung National Park.Photo © GPOCP

The first presentation took place in the village ofTanjung Gunung and was held at the home of PakBahrul, the head of the village. Access to CabangPanti starts with a two kilometer walk through thisvillage and the residents often wonder whyforeigners and other strangers are so interested inthis forest. We were pleased to explain why GPNPis so special and why people travel from all overthe world to experience this amazing forest. Thisactivity had over 30 participants who were all eagerto learn about GPOCP, Project OH, and aboutorangutans. They were particularly interested inone of our new short films, Person of the Forest,where we highlight how culture, much like humanculture, exists in orangutans too.

Wahyu holding a community discussion in Tanjung Gunung aboutthe research activities at Cabang Panti. Photo © GPOCP

The second night we held the socialization inSedahan Jaya. This village is actually quite close tothe CPRS, only eight kilometers if you draw astraight line. However, there is no cut trail andmost of those eight kilometers is peat swamp, oneof the more difficult terrains to try and hikethrough. This presentation was held at the villagecommunity center and was also well attended.Many people from Sedahan Jaya have worked withProject OH either as research assistants, campstaff, or as our logistics coordinator who sends allfood and supplies to camp. They were all excited tosee their friends and family in the presentation.

The third presentation was in Teluk Melano. Beforethere was an airport in Ketapang, researcherswould take a ferry from Pontianak to Teluk Melanoand then a long boat, similar to a canoe, fromTeluk Melano to Cabang Panti. Many of the originalresearch assistants from when Mark Leightonstarted CPRS in 1983 resided in Teluk Melano. PakMargono, the village head, opened the event. Therewas an interactive discussion afterwards and weheard many stories about orangutans. Some saidthat, in the past, they had kept orangutans as pets,but have since turned them over to localauthorities. Others told about how often they usedto find orangutans and their nests along thePerawas River, but now that forest has beenconverted to an oil palm plantation and they rarelysee orangutans anymore.

Wahyu presenting the research activities to residents of TelukMelano. Photo © GPOCP.

Overall, this event was a great success. Weinteracted with about 100 residents between thethree villages giving them valuable informationabout the importance of orangutans and why weare researching them and their habitat at CPRS. Ifyou have any questions about any of our researchor conservation programs, please feel free toemail us at [email protected].

Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (GPOCP) http://saveGPorangutans.org [email protected]

Orangutan Photographs © Tim Laman

All other photographs © GPOCP staff