Orangutans: The Great Ape Escape Natural World

Carried over the remote forests of Borneo is a very precious cargo.

Meet Leonora.

She doesn't know it but she is a pioneer.

With a handful of old friends, Leonora is on an adventure into the unknown.

She and her baby boy are leaving behind the security of a lifetime in captivity...

..for a chance of freedom.

For the chance of a new life

as a truly wild orangutan.

A quiet Monday morning on Katya Island in southern Borneo.

Leonora is relaxing in her cosy orangutan commune,

unaware of the life-changing events around the corner.

Leonora and her friends are orphans

and in the safety of their island sanctuary

they've developed some unusual habits.

Orangutans are supposed to spend all their time high in the trees.

Leonora has spent the last eight years here...

with private health care

and twice daily deliveries of the freshest fruit and veg.

It's far from a natural existence

but for many of them, it's the only life they've ever known.

Hundreds of orphans have been saved

by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.

Each animal has its own tragic story to tell,

of homes destroyed and mothers killed.

But here they've found new hope and a new mother,

the centre's founder, Lone Droscher Nielsen.

When they reach their little hands and their little arms up

and go like, you know, "Please help,"

how can you not?

Oh, you know, your heart just sinks

when you look into their eyes and see that, "Help me,"

you know, "Do something for me. I need you."

And how anybody can turn their back on that, I don't know.

They're so human that to me it would be the same

as turning away a child needing my help.

Lone's dream is to put all her orphans back in the wild.

But it's taken nearly a decade to start making it a reality.

Now, at last, she's about to release the first eight orphans.

Their world is about to be turned upside down.

And for Leonora, she'll have the added challenge

of caring for her own little one, mischievous Lamar.

Lone is particularly concerned about Leonora.

She's so tame that adapting to life in the wild

might just be too big a challenge.

When I saw Leonora for the first time,

I thought, "She looks just like my grandmother,"

hence the name Leonora.

When you look at her she's just a very gentle, kind orangutan.

Leonora seems to love company

but life in the wild will be much more solitary.

Fortunately, one of her closest friends, Emen,

has also been chosen for release.

Emen has already proved to be a born survivor.

She came in and I remember everybody just looked horrified

because four of her fingers had been cut off.

It might have happened when the mother was killed

because they hack them with machetes

and her hand, the baby's hand, is always one on the back and one on the front.

One of the first things I did think about was

how is she going to ever, you know, be able to climb trees?

Because she can't do anything with that one thumb, can she?

But, you know, she totally proved me wrong.

It's never, ever looked to be a handicap.

Emen also has a son, little Embong.

And like Leonora's baby, he's dependent on his mum.

It's time for their last meal on the island.

Leonora and Emen sit back to enjoy their last supper.

Finding food in the wild is going to be much more difficult

but Lone has always tried to give every orphan some lessons in survival.

They're all graduates of Lone's school.

Here their foster mothers teach them the basics.

Show them how to find different sources of food.

Encourage them to build nests for sleeping.

And try to teach them that they belong up in the trees.

Finally they graduate to the island,

the last stage in their rehabilitation.

But for Leonora and Emen, that was all a long time ago.

And no one knows if they'll be able to cope in the wild.

There's a great deal riding on the success or failure of these eight orphans.

Over the last 12 years, the rescue centre has been inundated

with orphaned and rescued orangutans.

The numbers have swollen to over 600 individuals.

After spending their day in the forest,

they're returned to their cages.

They're bored in those cages, even though we give them enrichment.

It shows in their eyes. Their eyes tell everything.

Everything that we've been working for for the last 12 years

is obviously getting these orangutans out.

If they make it, we don't have any problems.

If they don't make it, we'll have to reconsider

everything called orangutan rehabilitation.

If we fail we are standing with a very, very, very big problem.

BIRDS CALLING

The big day is finally here.

Leonora and Emen are on the lookout

for their early morning delivery of cucumbers and bananas.

But there's no sign.

Lone and her team are loading everything they need

for the big move.

Everything has been planned with military precision.

Lone hopes Leonora will walk into her crate

but is concerned about baby Lamar, who's wary of people.

Emen might also prove a problem, so they're preparing a sedative.

SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE

We've got both Emen and Leonora here,

so we should be able to get hold of them quite quickly.

SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE

Leonora would normally do anything to get her hands on fresh bananas.

Come on, Leonora.

If you're a good girl you can have all these bananas inside the cage.

Would you like that? Hm, you get one. You come with me.

She knows something's going on.

At the other end of the beach,

Emen is being distracted by some cucumber.

She hasn't spotted the blow pipe.

Hey, girl, hey, Emen.

HE BLOWS

The sedative makes her sleepy in minutes.

Good girl. Come on now. It's OK, sweetheart.

-Oh...

-But she still manages an iron grip with her left foot.

Oh, come on, give, give, give, give. That's a good girl.

Little Embong desperately clings on to his mum, where he feels safe.

Leonora is next.

DESPERATE SQUEAKING

Her baby, Lamar, has become separated. He's too young to dart.

Yeah, it's OK, it's OK. Yeah. We had to catch him.

He was trying to get away from his mother.

We were trying to carry the mother and he was...

HE SQUEAKS

Sh! SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

It's more safe there with Emen, yeah?

SHRILL SQUEAKING

They're totally mother-oriented and they're very afraid of us.

Catching a baby that's so... They bite very hard, believe me.

This strange experience will be the first of many

as they head to their new life.

The other adults chosen for the project are all sedated.

Yeah, he's dropping now. Yeah.

Those darted in the tree tops are safely caught in nets.

There are three females with infants.

And three males.

The orangutans are taken back to the centre,

where they'll undergo a thorough health check.

Eight long weeks of quarantine are finally over.

Last minute preparations for the next stage of the release are underway.

Leonora, Emen and the other orphans have been given

a clean bill of health

and had radio transmitters implanted under their skin.

They're all set.

No road trip would be complete without some snacks.

They have their favourites, sweet corn for Emen...

..and for Leonora, bananas.

They're heading north into deepest, darkest Borneo.

Over the last 20 years, Indonesian Borneo has lost

vast areas of its ancient, pristine rainforest

to logging and palm oil plantations.

For Lone it's made finding a safe protected area of forest

all the more difficult.

It doesn't matter how far I have to move them.

We took their forests away.

We took their home and killed their mothers

and I think that they deserve to go back to the forest.

No matter how much money and how much effort it's going to take,

we owe it to them.

Since leaving home, the orangutans have endured travelling

by boat, by truck and by plane.

To reach their new home they must take to the skies once more.

This time, suspended underneath a helicopter.

HUMAN VOICES

HELICOPTER ENGINE STARTS UP

Leonora and her friends seem to be taking it all in their stride.

Below them is the forest canopy

that their kind have climbed through for millennia.

Now they swing above it in a most unlikely fashion,

carrying the hope of a new and better future.

At last, back on terra firma.

The release team spring into action.

Lone's first priority is to check on Leonora and Emen.

Emen!

Emen!

Leonora!

Sweetie! Hey, sweetie.

The operation to put these orphaned orangutans back to where they belong

has been a huge effort from the whole team.

Emotions are running high.

I can't even describe it in words how I feel about it

because it is extremely overwhelming for me.

I really feel like a proud mother having to release them,

to actually know that they are now finally going.

For Emen the waiting is over.

Hey, Emen, darling.

It's your turn, sweetie.

In her lifetime she's survived the trauma of losing her mother

and most of her right hand.

Now she faces her greatest challenge yet - life in the wild.

Hello, Emen.

That's it.

THEY LAUGH

Can we do another one? Let's get to the next one.

Come on, now. Get them out.

One by one, the released orphans instinctively head for the treetops.

Leonora has been sitting quietly.

After four years at the rescue centre

and eight years waiting on an island sanctuary,

she's about to see her new home.

Ah!

Leonora is entering a world of uncertainty,

a world full of challenges,

a world away from what she's used to.

-Oh, I've got total faith in them.

-Ah!

I've got faith in them more than anybody else, I think, actually.

Lone and the team have done all they can.

Now it's up to them.

ANIMAL CALLS ECHOING

Somewhere out there are eight orphaned orangutans.

At camp, Lone and seven monitoring teams are heading out

for a long day in the forest.

Lone's keen to check up on Leonora and Emen.

The first major test will be finding their own food

and Lone is anxious to see if they're up to the challenge.

She heads to the release site but there's no sign.

They go deeper with the radio tracking equipment.

Even with the transmitters, the orangutans are proving tricky to find.

SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

STATIC NOISE

After half an hour of searching,

they pick up best friends Leonora and Emen in the same area.

BRANCHES BREAKING

Just heard something. BIRDS SCREECHING

It was just above us.

Something moving up there.

Yeah, that is Leonora.

Oh. I'd be a bit careful. She might decide to chuck some of it at us.

And little Lamar is hanging in a vine,

going, like, "Oh, go away."

It's always the babies that get most upset. It's the same on the island.

Below Leonora's tree, there's the evidence Lone has been hoping for.

Almost looks like a big apple or something. Look at that.

I think that's wild mango.

Almost smells more like a...

Oh, it's... God, it's sour.

They suddenly have to change from eating aubergines

and bananas and cucumbers and stuff

and eating these really, really sour

and very often very bitter forest fruits,

so it must be quite a change for them.

But they seem to enjoy it

and I think that's, again, that's their natural food

and there must be something that makes them just go, like,

"Oh, that's quite all right."

She's paying me absolutely no attention.

This is where life changes.

Food becomes more important than attention, you know,

from somebody they know.

She knows that she needs to be able to find food and get food first.

Leonora is making a promising start

but she faces the constant challenge of deciding

which plants and fruits are safe to eat.

Wild orangutan infants spend up to eight years with their mothers,

learning these invaluable lessons.

Leonora has to rely on her instincts to guide her.

All Lone can do is watch and hope.

BABY SQUEAKING

Oh, I can hear Emen's baby getting upset.

It's probably because the mother is moving and he wasn't right next to her.

Yeah, they're all... They're way up in the top up there.

Just as they did on their island,

Emen and Leonora are hanging out together.

Emen's also found some wild fruit.

It's not as juicy as her favourite sweet corn

but it's nutritious and she's getting a taste for it.

Little Embong is also starting to test out the new menu.

Leonora and Emen may still have each other for company

but the constant search for food may eventually test their friendship.

Over the next week, the monitoring teams are seeing positive signs

from most of the orphans.

They're staying high up in the trees.

They've seen them feeding on dozens of different plants and fruits.

And in the evening they're making fresh nests for sleeping.

Day by day, the team is becoming more impressed

with one in particular.

Leonora may have been the tamest

but she's undergoing the biggest transformation.

She's reached a major milestone.

Like a truly wild orangutan,

the constant search for food is making her and her son more solitary.

Emen has been following them around

but there's not enough fruit to share

and their relationship is changing.

LEONORA SQUEAKS AND GRUNTS

Leonora's kiss squeaks tell Emen she no longer wants her around.

Emen has no choice but to find her own patch.

It may be sad to see the friends part

but it's also a sign that things are going well,

as the orangutans continue to behave more and more naturally.

Two days later, there's a worrying development.

One of the orangutans is giving serious cause for concern.

SHE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

It hasn't moved for 24 hours.

When they've done so well the first week

and then they suddenly do not move for a day, you get a bit worried.

It's Emen.

She looks not too happy.

I wonder if she might have a bit of a bad stomach

because she didn't move yesterday at all

and her stomach is a bit flat today.

Their stomachs need to get used to this kind of new diet and stuff

but there are also things in the forest can be slightly poisonous.

Right now for them it's just, you know, try it and see what happens.

If it doesn't taste good you spit it out

but even something that tastes nice could probably potentially be slightly poisonous.

We'll just have to follow her a little bit today

and make sure she gets something to eat.

Emen's three-year-old baby, Embong, is still dependent on his mum's milk.

She needs to consume around 2,000 calories per day.

The fruit she needs is in the treetops

but Emen does what a wild orangutan mother would almost never do.

She comes to the ground.

Borneo's forests are home to many dangers -

clouded leopards, wild pigs and deadly snakes.

Lone doesn't want to intervene

but she watches to make sure they're safe.

I think she's a bit weak today.

She conserves energy by walking on the ground rather than going through the trees

but, again, there's also not much fruit down here.

She's going to lie down, yeah.

Sleeping on the ground is a worrying sign. Lone will stay with them.

After two hours, her concern is growing.

What we need to worry about is more him, actually, than Emen.

Emen could easily go for a long time without food, probably,

whereas Embong, he will get weaker faster if he doesn't get enough food.

We will only give food if the animal seems to be in proper distress,

meaning that they're really, really weak,

we have not seen them eating for, maybe three or four days.

If the animal gets really sick, if there's anything else wrong,

we might take them back.

But it will only be in those situations

when we really, really feel that we need to go in and help.

THUNDER RUMBLES

A change in the weather is a new challenge for the orangutans.

Despite the deluge, Leonora is still feeding.

She's found some tree ants

and has worked out a neat way of catching them.

She lets them get entangled in her hairs and then she picks them off.

This could turn out to be one of Lamar's most valuable lessons.

When fruit is scarce, they will need to rely

on these lower-grade food sources.

Leonora is learning and adapting quickly to her new life

but the same cannot be said for her old friend Emen.

Marios the vet has been called in.

Emen has spent the last two days up the same tree.

Her transmitter is still sending a signal but there's no sign of her.

They wait for an hour.

There's no movement.

-WOMAN:

-What are you thinking, Marios?

I don't know, I'm a little bit sad.

Are you really worried about her?

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

ALL SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE

When you haven't seen them move for a few days, you start worrying

and then the fear kicks in, the fear of not being able to help

if it is so bad that we can't medically help her

or she might already be dead.

They hope to tempt her out with a rescue package.

Rehydration salts and milk formula are added to water.

The tree is too dangerous to climb, so they'll hoist it up on a line.

Yeah.

Emen and Embong are nowhere to be seen.

-LEAVES RUSTLING

-Then, at last...

There she goes. Here she comes.

Emen goes straight for the bananas!

Then she discovers the bottle of water.

Hope Embong will come out and get some.

-He's normally quite forward.

-Oh, here he's coming, here he's coming.

Here he comes.

After not eating for several days, they devour the whole package.

It was very much a sense of relief

because by her starting to eat, Embong was also going to get some food

and she did share

and I was actually more concerned that she got fluids.

Fluid balance is so much more important than the food

and she did drink.

Obviously, she was hungry

and I think she just didn't dare to eat any wild fruits

because she didn't know what it was that had actually made her sick.

Wow.

For the next few days, they'll need to follow Emen's every move,

to make sure she and little Embong are getting enough to eat.

The transition into life in the wild was always going to be a challenge

but one orangutan has far surpassed their expectations -

Leonora.

I think I'm as proud as any mother would be

who's just sent their kids out,

not just to university but it's actually graduated from university as well

and then go out in the big world and succeed.

That's what they're doing. They're succeeding right now.

I think we all know when we have found that place

that we really want to live

and I think that, you know, they feel the same way.

This is their home where they're going to have to put down roots

and they're going to have their babies.

I'm sure that they must feel that, as well.

The orangutans are making the forest their home.

They're finding their own food, learning to live alone

and establishing their own territories.

Best of all, after giving everyone a scare,

there's good news for Emen and Embong.

They're well and are thriving on their own.

Leonora and her friends are living proof

that orangutans brought up by humans can indeed survive in the wild.

It's the news Lone has been longing for.

It means there is a future for orphaned and rescued orangutans.

And now these eight orangutans have actually succeeded,

it means freedom for all those orangutans that's been sitting there,

waiting in the cages for so many years,

waiting for their chance to get out in the forest.

Now I've got to get the next 600 out.

And I'm sure that the next 600 are going to do just as well as these guys.

Any animal you can give freedom, it touches you

in some places you don't even really know exists.

You know, it's just something so deep inside of you.

Lone hopes that very soon Leonora will be joined

by many more orangutans

and that they will found a brand new wild population

which will thrive here for generations to come.