C

heetah is a 12-year-old female orangutan at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Central Kalimantan.

She graduated from the “Forest School” stage of the rehabilitation program in 2006, and has since been living on one of the Nyaru Menteng islands.

On the islands there are no enclosures or cages; the orangutans live as naturally as possible within the boundaries of the island and animal caretakers provide additional food on a daily basis to supplement what the forest provides.

In the second week of October, the caretakers reported to their medical team that Cheetah wasn’t using her left arm properly; she appeared to have a wound on her elbow.

Minor to moderate wounds are not uncommon in orangutans — who climb trees all day — and with their amazing recovery abilities they often recover on their own.

However, after three days of monitoring, there were still no signs of improvement in the use of the arm, and the possibility of a more serious injury had to be considered.

In October, the medical team decided it was necessary to bring Cheetah to the clinic so that the wound could be fully assessed and treated.

As with many of the adult orangutans on the islands, it was not possible to persuade Cheetah down from the trees for transport to the clinic without sedation — but sedating an ape sitting in a tree is not an easy process.

Apart from the challenges of delivering a dart of sedative to a moving target, orangutans have a tendency to climb higher after being darted, and to fall asleep up in the branches.

As the sedative takes hold, their grip loosens, and they have a long way to fall.

The rescue team that sedated Cheetah set up a safety net at waist level and held it tautly to break her fall, but despite their best efforts she had an awkward landing.

Cheetah was brought to the Nyaru Menteng clinic for assessment and treatment. The wound on her left arm was deep and the muscles underneath were swollen and inflamed, although they didn’t appear to be damaged.

As well as addressing her wound, the medical team started her on antibiotics, pain relief drugs and put her on an IV drip.

Over the course of the next few days, it became apparent that Cheetah had pain in her right shoulder despite the wound being on her left arm.

An x-ray revealed a nasty fracture of her humerus, right near the shoulder joint, which very likely happened when she fell from the tree.

This kind of fracture would be challenging to repair in any animal of Cheetah’s size; but in an orangutan, who needs to be able to support all her weight on that arm while swinging through the forest, the way the injury healed would be pivotal in determining Cheetah’s future.

If the bone didn’t heal well, the arm would have to be amputated; which would mean Cheetah could never be released into the wild.

For a successful surgery, Cheetah needed a highly experienced orthopedic surgeon, some custom-modified fixative plates and a long and complicated operation that had to take place within two weeks of the break, before the bones began to heal in the wrong position.

A leading Indonesian orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Endrotomo, heard about Cheetah’s situation and offered to fly from Jakarta to Nyaru Menteng in Central Kalimantan and donate his time, expertise and the necessary surgical tools to operate on the ape’s shoulder.

Dr. Endrotomo and an assistant flew to Kalimantan and successfully operated on Cheetah with the support of a veterinary team from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.

Although Cheetah is still under intensive treatment, her condition is very stable and the operation was a complete success. She has a titanium plate (sponsored by Dr. Endrotomo himself) firmly in place in her right shoulder, which will hopefully enable her bone to fuse in the correct position.

It will take at least two months of strict rest — and a lot of patience on Cheetah’s part — for the bone to knit together and heal. One can only hope for a successful recovery for Cheetah, so she can once again return to swinging in the trees.