Nielsen, 'mother' of orangutans

Tarko Sudiarno, Palangkaraya

A hairy hand gripped the shoulder of a pretty woman, in a stark contrast. It belonged to Jack, an orangutan, who gazed at the woman while making a sound that only she could understand.

"Oh, you don't want to be left here, then. You're still afraid. OK dear, come home with me then," the woman, Lone Droscher-Nielsen, gently told Jack. In fact, he was scheduled to be reintroduced to the thick forest on Kaja island, Central Kalimantan.

Six-year-old Jack would not let go of the 42-year-old woman's shoulder as he was simply not ready to be left alone.

"He communicated that he was afraid to live in the forest," said Lone, interpreting the orangutan's hard gaze and seemingly spoilt behavior.

Finally, with great patience, Lone took Jack back to the Orangutan Reintroduction Center in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan. Aboard a speedboat, they traveled along the river that bordered the forest. All the while, Jack held tightly to Lone, suggesting that he did not want his "mother" to abandon him.

Lone Droscher-Nielsen, who comes from Denmark, is now a mother of sorts to hundreds of orangutans at the reintroduction center, which she has been in charge of since 1999.

Today, the center is home to about 240 orangutans that will later be reintroduced to the forest. They are among those rescued by the relevant authorities, or saved from forest fires in Kalimantan.

"I have fallen in love with orangutans. I love them so much that I have abandoned any wish to have my own children. How could I help the orangutans if I had to take care of my own children? I take great pity on them," said Lone.

She is married to a man from Kalimantan, whom she is in the process of divorcing. Her husband wanted to have children, but Lone was adamant that she did not want her own children as she was devoted to the orangutans.

Orangutans are the "be-all and end-all" for Lone. She is happy living in the thick of the jungle for their sake, but is greatly concerned over the decreasing population of the orangutans.

She said there were about 15,000 to 20,000 orangutans left on Kaja island. Unless the government takes quick action to overcome problems caused by the destruction of their habitat, there will be no more orangutans here by 2020.

"That's why I will do my best to ensure their survival," she said.

Lone lives among orangutans at the center and knows, not only their names, but the character of each orangutan there.

For example, when she approached a young orangutan, Bimbin, who was rolling on the ground in a tantrum, Lone immediately knew what had caused his behavior. He was jealous because she was playing with the other orangutans. So, she greeted Bimbin and picked him up.

Afterward, she let Bimbin take a candy that she had been chewing from her mouth. Bimbin put his lips close to Lone's and took the candy.

Lone fell in love with orangutans as a teenager at secondary school in Denmark. Her teacher asked her to write something about the local zoo. At the zoo, she met an orangutan from Kalimantan for the first time. The experience stayed with her until adulthood.

Later, when she worked as a stewardess with the Scandinavian Air System (SAS), she heard that orangutans in Kalimantan were facing a grave threat. She decided to serve as a volunteer to save them, abandoned her job, and left for Kalimantan in 1993.

At first, she was involved with the Orangutan Reintroduction Center in Tanjungputing, South Kalimantan. A short while later, she moved to a similar center in Bahorok, West Sumatra. Then, in the same way that orangutans wander through the jungle, she moved from one reintroduction center to the next, until finally arriving at Nyaru Menteng, about 30 km to the west of Palangkaraya.

Lone has left behind her parents, other family members and her own country, to serve as a mother to the orangutans.

"If I had my own children, I would naturally devote myself to them. But I could never do that, I would not have enough time for the orangutans," she said, again and again.