We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes.
— Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist, ethologist and popular-science writer
Last weekend, I received an urgent call from the Semenggoh Wildlife Center informing me that my “foster” son Ritchie had disappeared.
It was not the first time that the orangutan had vanished; the last time was three years ago when it went missing for three months. But on Malaysia Day on September 16, 2017, “Ritchie” suddenly turned up during an event to celebrate the anniversary of the Alpha male’s
granddaughter.
It was uncanny because I had been invited to the birthday of Mas (short form for Malaysia) at the wildlife centre in conjunction with an “Adopt an orangutan” project. Fifty generous members of the public kindly contributed RM200 each per annum to adopt and help pay for the upkeep of 30 orangutans living in the 653ha forest reserve.
For me, it was meaningful because Mas’ mother, Annalisa, was the daughter of Semenggoh’s oldest primate Seduku, the “dowager” and consort of Ritchie, “king” of the forest. Ritchie was “rescued” as a four-year old baby from a wildlife trader at Nanga Delok in Batang Ai who offered to sell it to a group of tourists just before Christmas in 1989.
After the young animal was sent to Semenggok to be rehabilitated, it was released in the forest and later turned out to be a dominant male.
Over the last 20 years, Ritchie has become a star attraction for the estimated 60,000 tourists who travelled half way around the world to visit Semenggoh.
Having watched the primate grow, I have come to realise like me, Ritchie has turned somewhat into a “showman”.
Unlike most of the other primates, the 4ft 3in tall and 140kg Ritchie is a lone ranger —scouring the jungle on its own while “lesser mortals” moved around in groups. Not all its peers like Ritchie, because the talented primate appeared to be an upstart!
As Ritchie grew into a handsome animal, it enjoyed the accolades from awe-gaping tourists whenever it visited the park headquarters during feeding time. While its “subjects” would be waiting for breakfast which was served at 9am at the feeding platform, Ritchie would suddenly turn up on the pebbled pathway, walking slowly and deliberately like a VIP — Very Important Primate.
Forest guard Murtada, who has been Ritchie’s guardian for two decades, said that when primate arrived, it would head in the direction of the visitors who were waiting for its entrance at the grandstand and as Ritchie made its way to the feeding platform to feast on the fruits — bananas, water melon, papayas and coconuts which it relished, it would first take a bite and drink the coconut juice before cracking open the fruit and feeding on the white coconut kernel or flesh.
Murtada, a 62-year-old forester from Kuching, said that taking care of Ritchie had been challenging but interesting because orangutans shared 97 percent of the human DNA.
Ritchie is temperamental, possessive and bad-tempered. Over the past 10 years, there have been several orangutan incidents including blatant thievery!
Fifteen years ago, when a forest guard called Mislan tried to pull away a schoolgirl’s satchel which had been stolen by a primate, Ritchie’s female friend called Delima bit off the man’s finger.
In another incident recently, Semenggoh’s retired forester Ken Proud — the reserve’s first warden from 1974 till 1980 — who was visiting Semenggoh with his spouse had to wrestle his wife’s stolen purse out of Ritchie’s hand.
It was not the purse’s contents, but rather its attractive colour that tempted Ritchie to walk up to the woman and pinch it under her nose.
Over the last 30 years ago, Ritchie has lived a carefree life. But soon, it faced problems because over time, the younger males, who had become giant orangutans themselves, were able to take on the old man.
In Ritchie’s first encounter with a hefty male challenger George 10 years ago, it bit off a finger and blinded the right eye of its rival, forcing the forestry officials to relocate the animal to Kuching’s second wildlife facility sanctuary at Matang.
Ritchie had a second fight with Aman several years ago — orangutans fight like sumo wrestlers by using their weight to shove off their opponents — and the latter was also sent to Matang to prevent another mishap.
After the departure of George and Aman, Ritchie enjoyed its privileged status and often went away with “unofficial” leave or AWOL during the fruiting season.
On one of its first excursions, the overweight “man of the forest” fell when the branch of a lofty tree broke; it fell at least 100 feet down and broke off one of its limbs.
Ritchie was found by Murtada and a Bidayuh colleague interestingly named Vincent Osaka, a month later in good health after apparently nursing its own wound. However, in recent years, Ritchie has started throwing tantrums; it once thrashed the forestry office complex when it looked at a window, saw its reflection and thought it was a rival.
Five years later, “grandma” Seduku left Ritchie for other partners and the “man of the forest” later had a big fight with its new girlfriend Delima. But the worst was to come when two new challengers emerged — Anwar who is 24 and Ritchie’s own son Edwin who is two years younger.
Early this year, Ritchie who is getting on, may have decided to retreat into the remoter part of the Semenggoh forest to avoid another confrontation with the duo.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Ritchie may have turned up at Semenggoh and saw visitors who looked strange with their masks. Thinking that they were aliens, it might have decided to hide in the jungle. The old feller has vanished without a trace for at least 10 months now.
Now that a vaccine has been discovered and normal people will return unmasked soon, Ritchie may finally show up to reclaim its throne!
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
