The Development of Feeding Competence in Rehabilitant Orphaned Orangutans and How to Measure It

For critically endangered species, restorative conservation becomes increasingly important. Successful re-introduction of rescued wild orangutan orphans requires rehabilitation mimicking maternal rearing in the wild. Feeding competence-what to eat, where and when to find food-needs to be learned bef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Animals (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 13; p. 2111
Main Authors:	Preuschoft, Signe, Marshall, Andrew J, Scott, Lorna, Badriyah, Siti Nur, Purba, Melki Deus T, Yuliani, Erma, Corbi, Paloma, Yassir, Ishak, Wibawanto, M Ari, Kalcher-Sommersguter, Elfriede
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Switzerland MDPI AG 26-06-2023 MDPI
Subjects:	Analysis Availability Book publishing Caregivers Children Conspecifics Diet Endangered species Evaluation Feeding feeding ecology Flowers & plants Food Food consumption Food plants Food processing Food processing plants Food quality Forest productivity Forests Fruit Fruits Habitats learning Measurement Methods Monkeys & apes Mothers Observational learning Orangutan Orangutans Productivity Protection and preservation re-introduction Rehabilitation Weaning Wildlife conservation United Kingdom Indonesia Borneo rehabilitation learning feeding ecology orangutan re-introduction
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Summary:	For critically endangered species, restorative conservation becomes increasingly important. Successful re-introduction of rescued wild orangutan orphans requires rehabilitation mimicking maternal rearing in the wild. Feeding competence-what to eat, where and when to find food-needs to be learned before re-introduction. We observed seven orphans (2-10 years old) for a period of 3 years during their rehabilitation at the Yayasan Jejak Pulang forest school. Of the 111 plant genera eaten by the orphans, 92 percent were known orangutan food plants. Five plant genera were eaten by all orphans in over 90 percent of the months within the observation period. The Fruit Availability Index (FAI) was used to predict which parts of a plant were consumed by the orphans. We found that the orphans ate primarily fruit when the FAI was high, but consumed more young leaves, cambium, and pith when FAI was low. Thus, the orphans exhibited food choices very similar to mature wild orangutans and appropriate to forest productivity. The orphans' acquisition of feeding competence was facilitated by their immersion into a natural forest environment in combination with possibilities for observational learning from conspecifics as well as caregivers modelling food processing and consumption.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2076-2615 2076-2615
DOI:	10.3390/ani13132111