Where Are You, Bumi?

It was another happy day at Nyaru Menteng’s Forest School, with the Group 4 students located near
the wooden bridge used to access the area on foot. In the space beneath the bridge, where thick
vegetation covers the forest floor, curious Bumi found a space to lay down and hide!

Ibu Sri, one of the surrogate mothers in Forest School at the time, was taking a head count to make
sure that all the students were present. She hadn’t seen Bumi slip under the ground cover and soon
realised he was not with the group. She called out to him multiple times, but he was nowhere to be
seen.

She started searching for Bumi, calling out to him all the while. She walked all around Forest School,
in search of Bumi, until she eventually passed over the wooden bridge. She stood there for a while
and kept calling: “Bumiii…Bumiii…..Bumiii..” All of a sudden, a hand reached out from beneath the
wooden bridge and grabbed Ibu Sri’s foot. She screamed in shock, not knowing what it was that was
grasping her foot! When she looked down, she saw a small hand with orange-brown fur. A small face
then peeked out from below the bridge. Ibu Sri was relieved to learn that it wasn’t something
dangerous holding her foot, but rather the student she was looking for all this time - Bumi!

Bumi looked quite pleased with himself, that he had succeeded in scaring Ibu Sri. Let’s hope he
doesn’t scare more unsuspecting surrogate mothers with this cheeky trick!

Text by: Dr. Nadine Adrianna Sugianto, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of
Birmingham, working on the Orangutan Enclosure Design Tool (EDT) Project in collaboration with
BOSF - Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan.