OuTrop people
The Directors
Simon Husson – Founding Director and Director of Biodiversity Research and Conservation
Simon started his orangutan research in the Sabangau in July 1995, as part of the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team. A zoology graduate, Simon studied large mammal populations in Nyika National Park, Malawi and Sweetwaters Reserve, Kenya before returning to Borneo in 1999 nd establishing the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Research Project with Helen Morrogh-Bernard, Laura D'Arcy and Claire McLardy. Simon's research has been focused on studies of orangutan density and distribution throughout the Sabangau Ecosystem, providing the essential scientific basis for establishing protected-area status and conservation management plans for the region. This research has focused extensively on the application of nest-survey methods for accurately estimating orangutan density and Simon is regarded as a leading expert in this field. Simon coordinated large-scale surveys of orangutan density throughout Central Kalimantan for the 2004 Orangutan Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA); chaired the Central Kalimantan Working Group and co-wrote the final. As well as undertaking research, Simon is heavily involved with habitat management and restoration activities; collaborating with other scientists to better understand orangutan distribution and factors affecting their density and developing strategic conservation management plans to protect priority populations. Simon currently divides his time between Indonesia and the UK, completing a PhD at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge; managing the OuTrop Project and consulting for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation's Nyaru Menteng Reintroduction Centre. |
Research Staff
Twentino Losa - Camp Manager Twenty has been working with us for 8.5 years. Originally working as Orangutan Coordinator, Twenti worked almost all of his days in the field, spending long hours with the orangutans and people in the forest. He is now our camp manager and takes care of all the logistics and responsibilities that comes with having a site to live at in a peat swamp forest, including food deliveries and co-ordinating all trips by external visitors. We should also mention that Twenti is possibly the most experienced orangutan researcher in the world, with more than 5000 follow hours! 
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Director: Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard – Founding Director and Director of Orangutan Research
Helen began her research in the Sabangau Forest in July 1995 with the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team, returning in 1996 to complete her undergraduate zoology dissertation mapping orangutan density at the CIMTROP research site in the northern Sabangau Ecosystem. Helen then completed a Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, studying black rhinoceros behaviour in Sweetwaters Reserve in Kenya, before returning to Sabangau in 1999 with Simon, Laura and Claire. A six month sojourn to Negros Island in the Philippines followed, working as a research manager for Coral Cay Conservation, before establishing the orangutan behaviour research project in the Sabangau in 2003. With a small and dedicated research team, Helen habituated 25 individuals and started collecting data on orangutan activity, ranging, social and feeding behaviour, identifying how orangutans were surviving in and utilising a logged forest. Helen now collaborates with a wide-range of scientists and research projects, comparing orangutan behaviour between geographical locations, habitats and islands, helping to build up a complete picture of the ecology of this cryptic ape. Helen completed her PhD at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge, in 2009 and continues to oversee the behaviour research in the Sabangau with personal research interests focusing on orangutan social structure, ranging, male-male interactions and the unique cultural traits of the Sabangau orangutan population. She is now an Honorary University Fellow at the University of Exeter. |
Franciscus Agus Harsanto - Senior CIMTROP Researcher: Forestry and Biodiveristy
Like Ari, “Ciscus” has also been working with us from the beginning! From 2003 onwards he has helped with all elements of our research, particularly leading botanical work, phenology and orangutan nest surveys. He is also a key member of the Office Team, working as main translator for our Indonesian-language documents and assisting with management and logistical work. He is a fun, lively personality who has conducted LOTS of expeditions in Sabangau and throughout Kalimantan. Cis has good botanical and ecological knowledge, having graduated from the University of Palangka Raya - his intelligence comes across straight away, as well as him impressive English skills. He is one of the most experienced members of the team! |
Director : Dr Susan Cheyne – Director of Gibbon and Felid Research
Susan is a post-doctoral researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University, working with Professor David Macdonald. She is co-director of the Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project and initiated both the Gibbon Behaviour, Feeding Ecology and Socioecology Project and the Sabangau Felid Project in the Sabangau forest catchment, which has confirmed the presence of clouded leopards in this habitat. She also developing behavioural ecology and density studies on felid guilds within the Sabangau and surveys to determine the degree of bushmeat trade in flying foxes as well as indirect and direct hunting pressure on feids. In addition she is responsible for coordinating the volunteer programme developing long-term, wildlife monitoring projects to be carried out by students and volunteers which will contribute to the scientific knowledge of the study area, since 2005. She is also a scientific advisor to the Kalaweit Gibbon Project, raising awareness of the plight of gibbons and advising on rehabilitation and reintroduction of gibbons in Indonesia. Since 2010 she is an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University teaching Captive Management on the Primate Conservation MSc. She is a trustee of the charity MASC (Monkeys Acting in Schools for Conservation) and a council member of the Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB) and serve on the Captive Care Working Party for PSGB. |
Ari Purwanto - Senior CIMTROP Researcher: Forestry and Biodiveristy.
Ari has been working with us us since 2001 when OuTrop formally started. At this point our work was almost all orangutan nest surveys but from 2003 he has helped with all elements of our expanding research programme, particularly our phenology and biodiversity research. Ari is a key member of our Volunteer Team - with his exceptionally funny character, he is always great to work with but is also responsible, dedicated and hard working, showing his true love of the forest. With his university education and good ecological knowledge, his contribution to our biodiversity projects has been vital, particularly on the Butterfly Project over the last year and during earlier turtle and frog research. He always listens and jokes with everyone, enjoying both learning and teaching! |
Director : Laura D'Arcy – Director of Forestry Research
Laura met Helen and Simon at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998 and came to Sabangau for the first time in 1999 to carry out research on forest structure and beetle abundance for her master’s degree in Conservation Biology. Laura returned to Sabangau in 2001 to help establish the OuTrop Volunteer Program. She is a teacher and the Field Co-ordinator for ZSL in Indonesia. Laura has completed the Wilderness Training Far from Help (Parts 1 & 2) course and has OCR Qualification in Off-site Safety Management. She is also a member of the British Mountaineering Council and has completed the Mountain Leaders Training (summer) course and is now working towards her assessment. Laura carried out her training at Blue Peris Mountain Centre and Northern Mountain Sport. |
Santiano - Senior Staff and Foresty Research Coordinator.
Santi started with OuTrop on the same day as Twenti, working full-time on our orangutan research project for a number of years. He has a fantastic knowledge of forest flora, including tricky groups like lianas and ground flora - OuTrop’s best botanist! He is now responsible for coordinating the monthly phenology and orangutan nest surveys, in addition to providing a helping hand to the nursery and primate behaviour projects. His excellent varied knowledge of all OuTrop’s projects makes him a very important team member! Santi’s forest work before joining OuTrop included collecting jelutong (rubber) sap and some logging. He provides a perfect example of how a research project like OuTrop can provide alternative sustainable employment to local people, especially those with good forest knowledge through logging, which we now take advantage of every day! |
Director : Dr Mark Harrison – Managing Director
Mark has been working with OuTrop since 2003, when he came out to help Helen during the very first stages of the Orangutan Behaviour research programme. After working to habituate the orangutans, collect data and train local Indonesian staff in data collection for a year, he started his own PhD research, also at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge. This involved a further two years in Sabangau during 2005-2007 studying orangutan feeding ecology (and processing countless fiddly food items!), in addition to getting sidetracked by research into the trade in fruit bats in the area. After finishing his PhD in 2009 and spending a couple of months working on publishing his PhD findings, he ‘switched sides’ to the Biodiversity and Conservation Research Division where, together with Simon, he assumed the main responsibility for developing and coordinating OuTrop’s ecological monitoring research programme in Sabangau and surrounding areas. Mark was appointed OuTrop Managing Director in January 2012 and is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester. His main current research interest is developing mechanisms for documenting the effectiveness of different conservation initiatives and management regimes for biodiversity conservation, although he still dips his toes into a variety of other areas, including primate (especially orangutan) behavioural ecology, energetics and conservation; peat-swamp forest conservation issues; the intensity and sustainability of fruit-bat hunting in Kalimantan, forest phenology; seed dispersal; and rapid biodiversity assessments. See Mark's publications HERE |
Udin - Senior Staff and Nursery Coordinator
Udin has been working with us since September 2008 and with the CIMTROP Community Patrol Team since its inception in 2002. As well as still contributing to Patrol Team activities, Udin works as our Nursery Coordinator collecting seeds from the forest, encouraging germination, and monitoring the seedlings as they grow in the OuTrop Nursery. He coordinates our replanting trials and monitors replanted seedling survival. His knowledge of the trees, their habitats and growth conditions is impressive and makes him a highly valuable member of our team. “It is my challenge in life to understand this strange habitat and unlock the secret to making deforested areas back into forest once again. One day I hope to teach my children and grandchildren about this new forest, as my father did with me.” |
Staff
Dave Ehlers Smith - Director of the Red Langur project
Dave first came to Sabangau in 2008 to manage Dr. Susan Cheyne's gibbon ecology project, and became interested in a potential research opportunity with Sabangau's red langurs. Seeing a "gap in the research market", as red langurs were rather an under-studied lot, Dave returned in 2009 to establish the Sabangau Red Langur Research Project and has been directing the study ever since. Initially started for his PhD project as an investigation into the population density, ranging and feeding ecology of these monkeys in peat-swamp forest, the study is now a long-term monitoring programme of the langur population in Sabangau, and has also recently branched out into surveying red langur populations in other parts of Kalimantan. The Sabangau Red Langur Project has now also joined the other OuTrop projects in accepting research interns to help train our future conservationists in primate conservation field methods. Dave is currently based in the UK completing his PhD by publication, but returns to the swamp when his schedule allows. PhD: The Conservation and Ecology of the Red Langur (Presbytis rubicunda) in Sabangau Peat-swamp Forest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
Supian - Senior Staff and Red Langur Research Coordinator.
Supian joined OuTrop in 2010 to assist with our then newly-established Sabangau Red Langur Project. After completing initial population density assessments, the team started trying to ‘habituate’ red langurs groups, gradually following them in a non-threatening manner until they started to relax. This project complements our orangutan and gibbon projects, providing insight into red langur ecology, diet, ranging, activity patterns and social behaviour. At the end of 2011 Supian was promoted to Red Langur Research Coordinator. To date he has collected over 900 hours of follow data, making him one of the most knowledgeable red langur researchers in the world. He is truly hilarious to work with and is very good at making everyone laugh! |
Pau Brugues Sintes – Project manager
Pau’s first contact with primates was in 2006 when he volunteered at MONA Foundation (Primate Rescue Center in Girona) working with chimpanzees. He met OuTrop in 2008 as a volunteer. He enjoyed it so much that he was as Volunteer Coordinator in 2009, developing his skills in the forest and in leading teams. After working for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), within the Post-Release Monitoring Team in 2012, he is back to OuTrop in the PM position, being the most important link in between the staff and the directors, coordinating all research projects and staff. |
Adul - Senior Staff and Camera Trap Coordinator
Adul has worked with us since January 2008, where he originally worked on the orangutan and gibbon projects. He is now one of our most experienced and skilled primate followers, on orangutans, gibbons and red langurs! He currently balances his primate behaviour and camera trap project commitments, working excellently on both. Before joining OuTrop he previously worked as a fisherman on the Sabangau River. Now he is responsible for collecting and inputting all of our camera trap data - including photos of the Sabangau Forest and its most elusive mammals and birds. These include the clouded leopard, marbled cat and otter civet, only recently documented for the first time in Sabangau. He is always energetic and incredibly helpful, hard working and a great asset to the team. |
Luke A. Ward - Senior Primate Scientist
As our new Primate Scientist, Luke is responsible for the running of all three of our primate projects, including contributing to the design and implementation of new primate research. This includes overseeing projects and helping to train students, Interns and others working on our primate projects. OuTrop's primate research includes taking daily data on behaviour, distribution, individual identification and taking samples from the field. Luke holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in zoology and primate biology and behaviour and has worked for Columbia University, New York University, The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (department of primatology), and science and conservation based Non-Govenmental Organisations. He focuses on social network analysis, biological market theory, female sociality, female reproductive strategies, association and proximity patterns - interests that have enabled him to conduct field research in South Africa, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, and The Democratic Republic of Congo. To date, the main species he has studied are bonobos, titi monkeys, saki monkeys, spider monkeys, baboons, and capuchin monkeys. |
Aman - Primate Research Assistant
Aman has been working with us since March 2009, working on all three primate projects – orangutans, gibbons and red langurs – and generally helping out on all our research. He is always a pleasant person to work with, has amassed over 1,000 hours following orangutans and is one of our most experienced gibbon researchers. Our gibbon research has been running since 2009 and it’s great to have Aman’s help! |
Thea Powell - Communications Manager
As our Communications Manager, Thea is responsible for all outreach and communications, telling people about OuTrop across the globe. This includes writing the quarterly newsletters and contributing to most OuTrop reports. She researches recent OuTrop events, takes part in the scientific research at camp, and ensures this information is appropriately networked and reported. She will periodically be representing and promoting OuTrop in England. Thea is from Brighton, England, studied Ecology and has a MRes in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London. She is a keen ecologist, focusing on behaviour, social interactions and network theory. She has enjoyed contributing to several ecological companies, websites and some Non-Govenmental Organisations, including working closely with the British Ecological Society for 2+ years. She has contributed to marine and terrestrial field research in France and Indonesia - in both South Sulawesi and Borneo, and knows English ecology well due to many field experiences across the UK. She has been working with OuTrop since May 2012, as Communications Manager, in which role she also helps and assists with research in camp and in the town house, supporting the Project Manager and Lead Scientists. |
Aziz K - Primate Research Assistant.
From July 2010-2012, Aziz ‘K’ worked initially on the Red Langur (or “Kelasi”, hence the “K”!) Project. He now works on all three primate projects, which gives him a much more rounded work schedule and a deeper understanding of how these species are able to co-exist in the forest. He has demonstrated dedication, commitment and intelligence throughout his time with us, and shows great potential for the future! |
Cassie Freund - Project Scientist & Project Assistant
Cassie's first experiences with OuTrop were not in Sabangau at all, but rather at our Kalampangan research site in the Mega-Rice Project area, where she carried out field work for her Master's degree in Conservation Biology (Columbia University, NYC, USA). After an extremely hot and expedition-filled summer in 2011, Cassie decided to retreat to the comforts of Setia Alam to work as the Volunteer Coordinator in 2012, during which time she assisted with vegetation and butterfly surveys, camera trap data collection, phenology surveys, and the occasional primate behavior work. Cassie has recently transitioned into a new position with OuTrop; she will be working as a project scientist in addition to assisting with day-to-day project management. Her goals for the next several months are to continue working on the reforestation project that she and Nick started this summer, as well as to develop new forestry research that will add to our knowledge of why the Sabangau forest looks and functions as it does. Cassie's research interests include peat swamp vegetative ecology, forest regeneration, seed dispersal, and the impact of climate change on tropical forests. M.A.: Assessing the role of seed dispersal in peatswamp forest regeneration |
Unyil - Primate Research Assistant
Unyil joined OuTrop in January 2011 to help with an OuTrop PhD project which aimed to establish adult male orangutan home ranging behaviour in Sabangau. The collection of these data was very important for orangutan conservation but also very difficult to carry out, needing expeditions deep into the forest and sleeping in hammocks (not much fun during the night-time downpours!) to find male orangutans and collect their faeces. Field research for this project has now finished and Unyil is now using his experience of the forest by helping on our regular primate field work. |
Aimee Oxley - Primate and Biodiversity Assistant Scientist
Aimee developed a particular love for primates after working at a sanctuary for rescued animals in Bolivia in 2008. During her MSc she became interested in the impacts of tropical forest fragmentation on primates and in the effectiveness of ecological networks to mitigate these impacts. In the last year Aimee has been traveling around South America working on a number of projects and is now the Primate and Biodiversity Assistant at OuTrop working on the three primate projects and helping with our biodiversity studies. She supports all primate research in the field and in office, and works as a key member of the primate team. |
Aziz - Primate Research Assitant.
Aziz works on our orangutan, gibbon and red langur projects. Despite being possibly the most cheeky member of the team, he is particularly adept at following orangutans. As a result, he has now assumed primary responsibility for field data collection related to one of OuTrop’s ongoing PhD projects, in which flanged male orangutan long calls are analysed to assess whether these are a reliable indicator of body condition. This may help provide insights into how orangutans are influenced by forest disturbance. His lively and intelligent persona matches this responsibility well! |
Nick Marchant - Project Scientist
Nick has a long history with OuTrop, initially participating in the volunteer programme in 2003, before returning the following year to follow orangutans as part of Dr Morrogh-Bernards doctoral research. After this he returned to Ireland to complete a masters and work for five years as an ecological consultant, restoration ecologist and government outreach officer. In 2011 he returned to OuTrop to work as a senior scientist, coordinating the biodiversity research projects and providing scientific advice on a number of other areas of research. From June 2012 to January 2013 he worked as project manager, coordinating all research projects and staff. Nick’s interests are broad-ranging, focussing on ecosystem functioning, vegetation classification and biodiversity studies. He has coordinated our year-long research projects in vegetation, birds, butterflies and ants, and hopes to analyse and publish the results in the coming year. He has also been developing our reforestation experimentation proposals, for which over one thousand seedlings will be planted in a large deforested area near to our research site. In addition to this, he still loves his occasional days in the forest following orangutans, gibbons and red langurs! |
Marc Dragiewicz
Chief Ornithologist and Biodiversity Expert Marc has been exploring and studying tropical forests and coral reefs for over 20 years having studied at Arizona State University. Between seasons as a Field Biologist for National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska's Bering Sea and W.USA, Marc worked and studied in Central America, Northwest Amazon, Queensland-Australia, mainland Southeast Asia, and Indonesia - from Borneo to New Guinea. Beginning in 2005, Marc conducted some of the first organized bird surveys in Sabangau, surveying for avian indicators of forest disturbance, during which time he also started compiling a sound library of Sabangau forest sounds, and discovered that our local "fire ant/semut api" is an un-named species, with behaviours that may be unique to Asia. Marc has also lead biodiversity surveys with OuTrop in the Mungku Baru Forest, Mentaya and Katingan Rivers, and in hill dipterocap forest near the upper Barito in Murung Raya. In addition to acting as OuTrop's adviser on all bird-related issues, he is also taking a lead role in OuTrop's plan to develop a freely-accessible, online encyclopedia of Sabangau flora and fauna. |
Researchers
Ben Buckley - PhD: The Ranging Behaviour of Male Orangutans in Sabangau Peat-swamp Forest.
The most recent addition to a long line of PhD students from Cambridge University’s Wildlife Research Group working with Outrop in Sabangau. Having spent a year here between 2007 & 2008 working on the orang-utan behavioural project as the field manager, Ben has returned to Sabangau to carry out his own personal study on an aspect of orangutan behaviour which intrigued, baffled and even (from time to time) tormented him, both at that time and ever since. Often the known orangutan males would disappear from the established study area, then show up again many months later, sometimes returning with a new scar, other times seemingly in much better shape, well fed, strong and healthy. It was these questions that first led him to embark on this research project and focused his interest on the ranging behaviour and dispersal patterns of male orangutans. |
Amanda Hoepfner - PhD: Can the male orangutan’s long call be an indicator of forest quality?
After being the orangutan intern with OuTrop in 2011, Amanda couldn’t wait to get back into the forest! For her PhD studies at the University of Utah, she is was able to combine her interest in acoustic behavior and passion for primate conservation by studying the male orangutan’s long-distance vocalization (known as the long call). Amanda is interested in seeing if the male’s long call is an honest signal, in other words, it informs the sender about the quality of the male (i.e., good genes, body size or current condition). If the long call is an honest signal that females use for mate choice and males use for knowing when to confront or runaway from the long calling male, then understanding the signal content is important for deciphering mate finding behavior and social structure. Hopefully, if the long call reflects the male’s current body condition, it could give insight into the productivity of the forest. |
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Esther Tarszisz – PhD: Gardeners of the forest: Quantifying the role of forest fauna in seed dispersal using orangutans as a case study.
After spending several years traipsing around various jungles and deserts for scat samples from varied species (wallabies to jaguars) Esther has moved onto primate poo. For her PhD, with the University of Wollongong, she is studying how orangutans move seeds around the forest (via spitting and gut transfer) and how they are influencing overall forest structure. As the largest bodied fruit-eater in the Sabangau Forest, with large home ranges, it is expected they will have a disproportionate amount of influence in moving seeds, in particular large seeded species of fruit. This research is designed to understand orangutan influence on, and role within, forest structure. She is also investigating if there are any advantages to travelling through the orangutan gut for seed germination and will be conducting seedling establishment trials in the forest. Esther is enjoying unofficial status as the camp “doctor” although her previous patients have all been of the furry kind (having worked as a veterinarian in Australia, the UK and Botswana over the last decade) and sometimes uses oreos instead of liver treats as a reward for being a good patient! |
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