This 7-year-old orangutan is Doris and she
is responsible for melting my heart and
leaving me with the best memories from
MWC.
She is extremely docile and quite the
"people ape". Her mother was killed
when she was one-year-old and Doris
eventually found her way to MWC. She has
been released a total of 3 times and she
kept coming back. I am not saying that she
roamed free but just came back to the center
every once in awhile. She literally would be
released for a total of 2 days before she
would come back to the center and wait by
her enclosure to be let back in. She never
came back just for food, like Ciam would do.
Instead, she came back because she simply
did not like being on her own and away from
the people. She loves being in her
enclosure. She will most likely be a forever
resident at MWC.
Since she is so friendly and playful, the
volunteers and I had the opportunity to go
into her enclosure with her and keep her
occupied. Doris, interestingly, prefers
males to females. Keith, the head keeper,
said she might be like that due to a bad
experience with a female when she was
younger.
When we entered the enclosure, Doris ignored
the females and went straight for me. She
took my hand and walked me around her
enclosure. After that, she climbed up my
left to be held. Even though she is half of
my size, she weighs about 90 pounds. I
couldn't hold her for very long because she
is so heavy, but it was a great experience.
Not everyone has the opportunity to hold an
orangutan, especially one that is 7-years
old!
