When I started studying Indonesian, one of the first things I learned was the derivation of the word “orangutan.” Orang means person; I tell people I am an “orang America” an American person. Or I might say that my friend is an “orang baik” a good, nice person.  The word hutan means “forest.” So orang-utan means “person of the forest.”

The term orang hutan was probably originally used to refer to real people living in the forest, but during the 17^th century, some European scientists used the word in descriptions of Indonesian zoology, to describe the apes living in the forests of Borneo, and apparently it stuck.

Orangutans are super cool. They are big and orange and they can swing through the trees. A male can grow to be almost 6 ft tall, can weigh up to 260 pounds, and grows enormous face flaps around his chin to show dominance. The ladies don’t get quite as big, (4 ft tall, 100lbs) and they don’t grow the crazy jowls, but like the males they have strong, flexible hands and feet, and opposable thumbs and toes so they swing through the jungle trees with ease.

They even sleep up in the trees! They build themselves a nest to sleep in every night, pulling in big strong branches to form a foundation, and weaving in smaller, leafier branches to build a sort of mattress.

Orangutans, like lots of apes, are smart. They can use tools, like iPads.

The downside, is that they are also a endangered animal. Though different species of orangutan could once be found in many parts of Southeast Asia, those remaining in the wild now live solely in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra. The population in Sumatra is listed as critically endangered and the Borneo population is endangered. The Bornean orangutan population has decreased by 50% in the past sixty years. As logging, mining, and palm oil businesses have expanded, the area in which the orangs live has been drastically reduced. In East Kalimantan, where I live, estimates say there are less than 5,000 left.

It’s difficult to say if things are getting better or worse for the orangutans here in Borneo. Certainly the big businesses aren’t slowing down, but there does seem to be a greater push toward sustainable logging that might preserve some of the orang habitat. There are organizations that work to protect them and it is no longer legal to sell them (which is not to say it doesn't happen anyways). One of the teachers I work with has told me about the pet orangutan she had when her children were young. They bought it at the market and raised it as a pet for her kids to play with. Her son’s face lit up remembering the good old days playing with his orangutan pal. Nobody seems to want to explain to me where that orangutan might be now and they all laughed when I asked if I could buy one to take home as a souvenir. If its small and cute now, it’ll stay that way forever, right?

I've wanted to see an orangutan since I found out I’d be moving to Borneo. A few months ago, I went to the Samarinda zoo to do just that. While we did see some real live orangutans it was under the most heartbreaking conditions I could imagine. In one open area, there were three, skinny orange apes, who looked like they were desperately trying to hide from the people with cameras, all gleefully ignoring the signs reading “dilarang memberi makanan binatang” and throwing in food. There was a big male, in a small cage, huddled up into himself. Worst of all, in the last cage was a tiny baby, scrawny and alone. Needless to say, I've not been back to the zoo.

Last weekend, a couple friends and I headed up north to try and see orangutans in the wild. We took a bus and a car and a boat deep into the jungles of Kutai National Park, a protected area. As our guide landed the boat at what would be our rustic jungle home, he pointed way up into the tree to a big male orangutan, putting together his nest, and snuggling in. He was so high up in the tree, I couldn't make out much more than a dark shape with deft hands.

We hiked that evening and saw no other signs or orangutans.

We hiked the next morning and saw no signs of orangutans. But we did see and feel plenty of mosquitoes and leeches, so we knew we really were out in the jungle. We crossed rickety bridges over muddy streams. I cursed my inability to take a photograph that captured the jungly-ness of the jungle. And we still didn’t see any orangutans.

In town we’d been told that since it is rambutan season and orangutans love to eat fruit, we’d have a good chance of seeing them around camp. When we got to camp, our guide told us there really wasn’t much fruit around. I began to lose hope.

We set out for a third trek into the jungle in the late afternoon. We crossed bridges that were really just branches. We got muddy. I was just bending down to take a picture of a cool fungus when our guide stopped, shushed us, and pointed up into the trees. Way up in the canopy was a bright orange baby orangutan swinging from branch to branch, his mama followed close behind.

For almost an hour mother and baby swung around in the trees above us. I filled a memory card on my camera with pictures of bright green leaves and blurry orange shapes.

Our guide. Orangutan-whisperer

It was incredible to see. And it was almost made better by the fact that she’d been so hard to find. To be in the jungles of Borneo, watching a mama orangutan and her baby, I felt so very lucky. I gave up taking pictures and just watched. Sometimes mama moved with the baby clinging tightly to her back and sometimes the little one made his own way. They were graceful and strong. I loved watching the interaction between mother and child, making up the dialogue for it in my head “But Mom! I want to go play in that tree!”

Mama and baby

"I can do it myself, Mom!"

Orangey-brown orangutan blur

Eventually, as the light changed, and we heard the faint sounds of the evening call to prayer, the orangutan started to build her nighttime nest and we turned back for home.