Keke (ke)
Keke (ke)
A little about Keke (ke)
Keke arrived together with Koko on the 01 july 2002. She had been Koko’s friend and comfort at the lab where they were held. Keke is 100% blind. Whether blind from birth or perhaps from being damaged during her mothers murder we do not know, but the ‘owners’ tells us she has been blind since he bought her. On arrival Keke was approx 3-3.5 years old but being small for her age she weighed only 10.5kg. She had short sparse hair. We were rather concerned about what to do with a blind orangutan. It seem obvious she could not go to the forest but we could not stand seing her just lying in a cage all day long… so we took her to the forest anyway. And Keke proved us all wrong. She is now the best and most active climber in the babyschool, she makes nests and try to eat almost anything she encounters in the trees. When she is on the ground, she is so full of happiness doing pirouettes, thrashing herself on the ground while laughing, chasing babysitters or friends around on the lawn using her hearing to locate our whereabouts. Her life has changed so much. From her small unseen empty confinement, to this open space filled with stimulations for all of her other four senses… no wonder Keke is happy now.
