SUMATRA, Indonesia – Waikiki was known as a problem child, but that was hardly surprising.
He spent the first few years of his life chained to a fence at the housing project where he got his name; it was also where he lost any fear of the humans who had killed his mother and sold him as a pet.
By the time conservationists rescued him, Waikiki was growing fast and had plenty of attitude. Once, after escaping from his cage and chasing off his keeper, he slowly and methodically dismantled the keeper’s motorcycle.
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Conservationists tried twice to release him back to the wild, but he kept returning to human habitations, which were much more familiar to him than the forest. So they decided to take him deeper into the jungle, which is where we met the now 10-year-old orangutan.
His small travelling cage was carried to a remote part of the forest, and placed in a clearing near a river. We set up our camera about 10 yards from the cage, in the shadow of a tree, and placed another small camera in a bush close by the cage. We hoped our cameras would record his exit and ascent up the nearest tree – to freedom.
But when the cage was opened he headed straight for us. One keeper, whose stub of a finger was a reminder of the last time he tangled with an angry orangutan, decided that humoring Waikiki was not an option.
“Run, to the river,” he yelled.
We waded into the water, while Waikiki paced up and down the bank. The conservationists splashed him with water and shouted: “Go Waikiki, go! Climb! Climb!” Eventually he skulked off into the jungle and we began the two-hour trek back to camp, our team speculating as to when they might see him again.
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