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17-year-old female orangutan released two years ago in Kehje Sewen forest, Muara Wahau district, East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, together with her baby, has given birth to another.

'€œWe spotted her for the first time with the new baby last week,'€ Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) spokesman Nico Hermanu said on Sunday.

The foundation, he said, was still waiting for the results of further observation from the field team on the sex, health and other information about the newborn orangutan.

Nico said that the observation had to be conducted with care, as the mother orangutan, named Yayang, was very protective of her newborn.

The foundation, he added, expected further information regarding the condition of Yayang and her newborn baby to be available next week.

Yayang gave birth to her first female baby orangutan, Sayang, in 2009 in Kaja Island, an orangutan prerelease island at the BOSF-owned Nyaru Menteng reintroduction facility near Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, at the age of 12 years.

Sayang was four years old when released along with Yayang and soon learned to find her own food and to separate herself from her mother.

'€œIt'€™s been two years since the release. It'€™s quite possible that Sayang no longer depends on her mother, making it possible for Yayang to have another baby,'€ Nico said.

Separately, BOSF CEO Jamartin Sihite said the fact that orangutans could breed well in the wild indicated that the tropical rainforest in the lowlands of Kalimantan was in good condition.

'€œIt also indicates that the individual orangutans released there can adapt well, and that they received the right training at the reintroduction center,'€ Jamartin said.

Before being released into the wild, Yayang was rehabilitated at Nyaru Menteng reintroduction facility. She was estimated to be 7 years old when she arrived in Nyaru Menteng in January 2004, having been seized by the Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) from a resident of Banjarbaru, 35 kilometers to the east of Banjarmasin.

It was at the reintroduction center that Yayang was trained to live freely in the wild, including how to choose food and how to build a nest.

'€œAn orangutan is considered mature when it is capable of building a nest. When it is in a reintroduction center, it is considered ready to be released into the wild when it is capable of building a nest,'€ Jamartin said.

Narrow-eyed, dark-brown-skinned Yayang spent eight years in Kaja Island before she was released in 2013 at the age of 15 years. She was 36.8 kilogram in weight when released.

Jamartin said that Kehje Sewen forest was selected to be the venue for the release of Yayang and Sayang, and another orangutan named Diah, because their DNA test results showed they belonged to the subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio originating from East Kalimantan.

As such, despite having been rehabilitated in Central Kalimantan, they were released in East Kalimantan. The original subspecies living in Central Kalimantan is Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii.