Our Adopted Friend Lear

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Here at The Vet Shed we are passionate about animals - all animals. We are especially drawn to the Australian Orangutan Project and we are pleased that we adopt a little Orangutan called Lear, who is very very cute indeed. We would like mention that this is a great cause and it costs very little to adopt one of the Australian Orangutan Projects gorgeous little babies, we urge you to adopt one along with us if you can spare the extra money to help with a fantastic cause. Meet the gorgeous little infants for adoption here

Name: Lear
Sex: Male
Arrival date: 9th November, 2005
On arrival: 2.8 kg
Age on arrival: 4 months
Previous history: Handed in by local villagers
Care centre: Pangkalan Bun, Borneo

Lear arrived at the care centre on the 9th of November 2005. He was a tiny infant, only 2.8kg and only approximately 4 months of age. He was found by local villagers who lived many hours from the care centre. They found Lear at the bottom of a tree - he’d probably had fallen from his mother’s “night nest”. He must have been found very soon after his birth as his eyes were still shut and he had no teeth at all. He was handed over to the care centre a few months later by the villagers Now Lear is big and healthy, weighing in at nearly 5.5kg. Lear loves spending his days in the forest. Although being so young he never ventures far from his carers and still wobbles about, just like all babies learning to climb, play and walk on all fours. Lear is a very handsome little boy, with a huge round stomach, a trait of most infant orangutans.

Lear Update 2007: Lear is now active and healthy. He passed his half yearley health check with flying colours. He is now one of the bigger orangutans in his pondok playground. He takes great pleasure in showing the assistants how big his teeth are getting, by sinking them in every now and again. This lovely trick he learned from his mate Morgan. He now moves around his playground with skill and ease and it is now hard to remember the wobbly little Lear that first came to join us.

UPDATE July 2008 : Lear still loves to give those teeth a workout at every opportunity. If he is not chewing on branches in the forest or ropes and tyres in the playground he is trying to chew on the arms and legs of his human carers! He doesn’t get away with this too often as those teeth really do hurt when he latches on. Luckily he has many orangutan buddies who love to wrestle and bite just as much as Lear and, since orangutans have much thicker skin than humans, when the orangutans play no one seems to get hurt. Lear is also developing quite a hair do! No longer the little baldy of two years ago Lear now has lovely thick hair.


UPDATE July 2009 : Lear is growing fast - he now weighs 10.5 kg and, at the moment, he seems to be all arms and legs! He is definitely going through a ‘gangly’ stage but is just a cute as ever.

Lear adores mandarins and they are definitely his favourite food. He also loves his orangutan friends and has lots of them at his pondok home. He plays with them and play jokes on his carers – tugging their hair and stealing their hats with a big grin on his face.

Like the other youngsters of his age Lear is learning many skills including how to make nests and find forest food. Hunting for food like fruit and young leaves is a favourite pastime. His carers help him to find them and then teach him about the best and tastiest choices.

We have been very lucky today to have one of our customers vist Lear and take some pictures of him and give us an update which we are posting here - Thanks Kaye!

Friday, 19th November

Hi to all at The Vet Shed.

The photos of Lear that we took in May will come one at a time. There are five of them.He has a reputation of being naughty and he is certainly curious, cheeky and
mischevious. He immediately targeted us because we were new and was very
keen to undo our shoelaces (1st photo) and take my friend's watch off her
wrist (2nd photo). We tried to distract him with the tree branch and then
rolled him onto his back and tickled his stomach.

An American couple, who fundraise in Las Vegas, arrived with fruit and
bottled water so Lear decided to give them some attention. To distract him
the guy gave him the hat which provided Lear with something to play with
whilst they gave out their "goodies" to the others.

I am fortunate to have travelled quite a lot and there is no doubt that this
trip was close to the best that I have been on. We organized it through the
Australian orang-utan project and this is why we were allowed to visit the
orphanage. We spent over an hour with 5/6 year olds who were being taught
how to fend for themselves in the forest. We then had almost two hours with
the 2/3 year olds who played on the gym equipment, took fruit from our
hands, drank water out of bottles and allowed us to give them cuddles. It
was sad that they were orphans but at least they had been saved and had a
chance to survive. Before we went to the orphanage we had been up river and
spent two days visiting feeding stations so saw lots of orang-utans
including one who sat on the dock blowing her cup of tea to cool it off!

Bye now, Kay


A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN ORANGUTAN PROJECT (AOP)

The orangutans' rainforest is disappearing at an overwhelming rate with the remaining forest being degraded by drought and forest fires.

Extinction in the wild is likely to be 2010 for Sumatran Orangutans and 2015 for Bornean Orangutans. We need to recognise the massive amount of suffering being inflicted on a species that is 97% genetically identical to humans.

Orangutans are highly intelligent animals. Their intelligence is comparable to that of a five or six year old child.Surely these self-aware animals deserve the right to live and to be free from torture and exploitation?

Protecting the orangutan also protects the surrounding ecosystem and myriad of endangered and exotic species. Saving the orangutan saves the forest.
None of us want to have to tell our children or grandchildren that we were around for the last decade of the Orangutans but we weren't quite able to get our act together to save them.

The Australian Orangutan Project supports many orangutan conservation organizations. AOP is a non profit organisation staffed by volunteers to raise funds and collect donations for Orangutan Conservation and habitat protection. Other than one part-time administrator, there are no salaries paid to AOP volunteers and most services are donated. Therefore a very high percentage of your donations go straight to organisations involved in the active welfare of Orangutans and on habitat protection.

Mission Statement

" To ensure the survival of both Sumatran and Bornean orangutan species in their natural habitat and promote the welfare of all orangutans "

Action Plan

1. To raise funds and other support to assist in situ orangutan projects in their conservation and welfare work.
2. To raise awareness of the need to preserve orangutan populations in their natural habitat and the intrinsic value of individual orangutans.

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