Held Hostage by an Orangutan (Kalimantan Part V)

My previous related posts about the orangutan preserves in Tanjung Puting:

Heading for Kalimantan, 12/05/05

The Klotok (Kalimantan Part II), 12/11/05

Up the River (Kalimantan Part III), 12/12/05

About the Sanctuaries (Kalimantan Part IV), 12/13/05

Held Hostage by an Orangutan (Kalimantan Part V)

I stood frozen, sense overcoming the fear rising in my throat. I knew I had to remain calm. An orangutan with the strength of several men gripped my hair tightly, holding me hostage. My mind raced; how could I escape without being mauled? (I had never heard of anyone being mauled by any of these peaceful primates, but I was in no mood to weigh statistics.)

Calmly, in a purposefully conversational, non-threatening voice, I said to my so-called guide, “Said (Sah-eed), can you help me? Said?” I was, of course, completely panicked, but I made every effort not to show it.

Moments before, we had watched red apes of all shapes and sizes swing in from the forest canopy for feeding time at the first orangutan sanctuary we visited, Pondok Tanguii. They traveled on vines and branches from the depths of the rain forest, reaching one arm over the other until they arrived at the feeding station, a platform in the middle of the Borneo jungle. These orangutans were still being given a hand-out of sorts, until they could completely acclimate to the wild and make it on their own. At the feeding station, they scrambled for bananas placed there by the Tanjung Puting park rangers. (The rangers were young, shirtless Indo guys, one of whom had a poster of Jennifer Anniston in his room. I saw it when they let me use the room to change. Jennifer Anniston?)

After watching the raucous feeding, Said and I walked further into the jungle. He had seen a young, adult female ape sitting low in the trees, and he recognized her. Many of the orangutans had been given names, and Said reached up to Anher. She took his hand and held it politely. Said started shooting my video camera when I did the same.

He was still shooting when the orangutan suddenly stopped holding my hand and strongly and agressively grabbed my forearm. She startled and frightend me, but I was powerless in her grip. She then snatched hold of my hair with a hand and both feet, putting a lot of her weight on my head, almost using my head like a tree branch. She would sometimes release the grip of one of her hands, but not before she grabbed my hair even more tightly with a foot (there's not much difference between the hands and feet of an orangutan), always very, very tightly, right at the roots. It seemed she would pull my hair out. The rangers, of course, were nowhere in sight.

Said spoke to me in a low tone, “Don’t be aggressive, or she will bite you.” Well, duh... No question who would win in a bar fight. Said couldn’t leave me to get help, and he couldn’t really help me himself. So he did the only thing he could - he kept on shooting video! I sighed internally. Well, at least my death at the hands (and feet) of an orangutan would be on film for posterity.

Anher reached down, grabbed my hand and tried to put it to her mouth. This terrified me, but I slowly and carefully pulled my hand back, and she allowed it. Then she put her teeth down to my hair as if to try to taste it. "This is it," I thought. I was scared out of my mind she would take a big bite out of my face.

Finally, I think Anher got bored. I put my hand gently on the foot that was currently pulling the hair out of my head and forced my head down and murmured, “It’s all right... it’s all right.” And she finally let go.

I looked into her eyes, and they were not the eyes of a dog or cat. They were the intelligent eyes of a mischievous human teen-ager, and I could see the wheels turning behind them. Anher looked back at me and smirked.

PHOTO: Photo is of that demon, Anher

To be continued...