BANIR

Banir finally had her first forest school session with her new group, which consisting of Seko, Otan, and Julia. However, as soon as she left the overnight cage, Banir did not immediately follow her group. Instead, she walked toward her mother Benazir’s cage next door. Banir entered the tunnel that connects the enclosures and stayed there for quite some time, as if seeking comfort from her mother’s presence. Benazir responded by approaching Banir, even though the two were separated by the tunnel’s enclosure door.

About 15 minutes later, Banir began to gather the courage to leave the tunnel and head toward the forest school area. She took a moment to observe her surroundings, paying particular attention to the observers in the distance, before quickly moving out. At that time, her group was climbing trees nearby. Seeing this, Banir tried to climb as well—though she chose a large tree with a trunk much wider in diameter than the ones her group members had picked. As she reached out and tried to climb, Banir appeared to struggle. While the others ascended with ease, Banir took much longer to gain height. Eventually, she gave up, came down for a moment, and then chose another nearby tree that was easier to climb.

In her exploration patterns, Banir seemed hesitant to stray too far from her group, which was understandable given that these were her early days at forest school. She tended to follow the other orangutans, spending most of her time in the lower and middle canopy, and very rarely descended to the forest floor.

One unique moment occurred when Banir moved from one tree to another. Unlike her group members, who would pull on branches from the next tree to cross over, Banir chose a different method—jumping directly. Unfortunately, this technique often caused her to miss her grip and end up falling. Luckily, she did this in the lower canopy, so the height of the fall was not dangerous.

As for food, Banir still imitated her group members’ feeding behavior. So far, she had only eaten natural foods such as young leaves. From time to time, she returned to the tunnel leading to her mother’s cage, as if seeking comfort, before continuing her forest school adventure.