Written by Azis K (Gibbon Project Coordinator)
Meet Chilli; one of the most well-known and lovable gibbons of the Sabangau Forest. Here she shares some of her adventures from the forest for you and your family to enjoy.
My name is Chilli and I live with my family in the Sabangau Forest on Borneo. In my family there is my mum, dad and me, our family name is ‘Group C’. Every day we travel around the forest searching for food. When I was searching for food one day, I saw a tree shaking a lot in the distance, I knew it wasn’t shaking because of the wind. I wanted to know what it was; my mum is always saying I’m very curious! So, I tried to get closer to the shaking tree, and found two animals, one big and one small. They were both orange coloured and the small one looked very cute! I tried to play with him, and he joined me! Even though his body was bigger than mine and he was not as nimble as me, he was still good to play with! But, his mum, the large animal, was worried about him falling out of the tree, because he doesn’t normally play like that, but we kept playing anyway. Maybe his mum was worried because I was so excited to play, so she grabbed both of my feet to stop us playing before one of us got hurt.
So, I returned to my family and my mum said, “they are orangutans”. We then carried on travelling until we reached our sleeping tree. I was really happy because I made an interesting new forest friend! Hopefully, I will find more interesting new friends in the future.
To be continued…..
Nama saya Chilli dan saya hidup di Hutan Sabangau bersama keluarga saya. Di dalam kerluarga saya ada ayah, ibu dan saya, nama kelompok kami adalah grup C. Kami berjalan-jalan mengelilingi hutan setiap hari untuk mencari makanan. Ketika saya sedang mencari makan, saya melihat satu pohon bergoyang cukup keras dari kejauhan, dan saya tahu bahwa pohon itu bergoyang bukan karena angin, jadi saya ingin mengetahui apa itu; ibu saya selalu mengatakan kalau saya selalu penasaran! Jadi, saya coba mendekati pohon yang bergoyang tadi, dan menemukan dua hewan, satu besar dan yang satu lagi kecil. Mereka berwarna oranye dan yang kecil terlihat sangat lucu! Saya coba ajak dia untuk bermain, dan berhasil! Walaupun bandan dia lebih besar daripada saya dan dia kurang lincah, dia masih bagus untuk diajak bermain! Namun ibunya sedikit khawatir dia akan jatuh karena biasanya dia tidak bermain seperti ini, tapi kami tetap asyik bermain bersama. Mungkin ibunya sedikit khawatir karena saya terlalu semangat untuk bermain, jadi dia tangkap kedua kaki saya untuk menghentikan kami bermain sebelum ada sesuatu yang berbahaya terjadi!
Jadi, saya kembali ke kelompok saya, dan kami berpisah dari hewan itu, ibu saya bilang nama mereka adalah orangutan, dan kami pun melanjutkan perjalanan sampai ke pohon-tidur kami. Saya senang sekali hari ini karena bertemu teman baru yang sangat menarik! Mudah-mudahan saya akan bertemu teman baru yang menarik lagi di masa depan.
Berlanjut…..
Photos by Tom Lloyd