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

Authors :
Signe Preuschoft
Andrew J. Marshall
Lorna Scott
Siti Nur Badriyah
Melki Deus T. Purba
Erma Yuliani
Paloma Corbi
Ishak Yassir
M. Ari Wibawanto
Elfriede Kalcher-Sommersguter
Source :
Animals, Vol 13, Iss 13, p 2111 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2023.

Abstract

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.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20762615
Volume :
13
Issue :
13
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Animals
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1104f53aaf914afa91f11d118a35f964
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132111