Life of an orangutan casanova
More than a year has passed since my namesake, Ritchie the orangutan alpha male, disappeared from the 653ha Semenggoh Wildlife Centre forest. I have done my own investigations to find out what happened because several years ago, he fell from a 150-ft tall tree and broke a limb. Thanks to Ritchie’s keeper Murtadza Othman, a […]
King Ritchie goes AWOL
We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes. — Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist, ethologist and popular-science writer Last weekend, I received an urgent call from the Semenggoh Wildlife Center informing me that my “foster” son Ritchie had disappeared. It was not the first time that the orangutan […]
Saving Ritchie, the Man of the Forest
Last week, I tried to play detective when a gentleman from Samarahan tried to sell me a live porcupine at a very special price. Apparently the Rial “Pasar Tamu” Market is one of the locations where one can purchase exotic wild meat on occasion. During the “negotiation” over the deal, I reported the matter to […]
