Orangutan Kartini, born in 2016, was found by locals hiding in a tree inside a plantation. The locals said that she was in the tree for two days before being rescued. She may be our first orphan to arrive directly from the wild, with no prior experience of humans. This made her adjustment challenging, not allowing us to touch or comfort her. She was on constant high alert, trying to assess every aspect of the strange situation she found herself in.

Kartini was rescued on Indonesian Kartini Day (21 April), and is named after Raden Adjeng Kartini, Javanese pioneer famous for her advocacy of education for girls’ and women's rights for Indonesians.

It took a lot of patience to win her trust, something the other orangutans also struggled with. She did not care to interact with most of them, but would tolerate little Gerhana, and eventually began to enjoy playing with him, and even with Cantik. Even at her young age, Kartini has good forest skills, being able to move skillfully through the trees, build good quality nests, and recognise orangutan food sources. She loves looking for food in the trees and play-fighting while swinging upside-down! Kartini even prefers to sleep in the forest at night – a big step in her development!

Kartini is currently in level 2 in the ORANGUTAN FOREST SCHOOL, but since she has learnt a lot from orangutan Cantik from level 3, she has made great progress and has started the process to be transferred to level 3.