Guldtop (top)

Guldtop (top)

A little about Guldtop (top)

Guldtop was the first handover during a newspaper campaign during May 2002 warning people of the risk of disease transmitted from wild animals to humans.She was approx 1.5-2 years old. The owners had two small children and they were terrified that Guldtop perhaps carried something that would be transmitted to their children even though they only had very limited contact. Guldtop was held in a large birdcage right next to the fence surrounding the house. Everybody passing by were able to put their hands straight into the cage or more likely poke sticks at her. She was a terrified little creature when we picked her up, almost impossible to get out of the cage, she was rocking back and forth very much like a crazy person, which continued during the fourty minutes trip Nyaru Menteng. She had the most beautiful hair, blond red and shiny just like gold. We named her Guldtop which is a nickname in Denmark for children with blond red hair. Her long beautiful hair was a deception for her petite, skinny limbed body. She weighed only 5.5 kg. It took her a few days to get used to the fact that we would not hurt her, but once we had her trust she took great advantage of our policy of letting the orangutans cuddle as much as they want, especially the females. At first she would be held by whoever would hold her, but as time has passed by she became extremely selective and would only be with four of the 20 babysitters. She was very easily stressed and had some rather weird behaviour patterns, such as her rocking, but also sudden unmotivated aggressive attacks on people and her orangutan friends. She was taken ill in the beginning of April with pneumonia and and this was followed by a bad bacterial dysentery. Now in august she has become a lot stronger both mentally and physically. She is not choosy of the babysitters anymore and her stress level has changed a lot. We hardly never see those strange behaviour patterns anymore and she has become rather independent. She climbs approx 40% of her time in the forest and does find some foods on her own. She now weighs 7.1 kg.