Terry Kohler Does Good Work With Conservation Efforts

This story tugged at my heart.  As the article notes there is something about a young animal with big round eyes that makes us pay attention and care. And if you take the time to read about Mahal, the orangutan in search of a home and mother, you will be lulled into his life story.

Equally important to the story is the fact that Terry Kohler, former unsuccessful GOP Senate candidate, and his wife Mary, are involved with trying to make a difference for this cutie, and other efforts to better the world.  “One of the responsibilities the good Lord gave us is to take care of His creation,” Kohler says. “The good Lord has blessed us beyond our comprehension, actually.”

Here is section of the story.

Days after his birth, they discovered Mahal had the equivalent of club feet, making it impossible for him to hang onto his mom the way other baby orangutans do. Orangutans walk on the sides of their feet, but Mahal walked flat, like a person.

It’s tempting to think that mom Hadiah rejected Mahal because of his deformity, but keepers believed she didn’t notice anything was wrong.

When Mahal was about a month old, the zoo brought in Mindy Siegel, a pediatric orthopedist who treats human babies with club feet.

###

If Hadiah was the overwhelmed young mother, Sandra was the grandmother figure who loved Mahal dearly. Born on the island of Sumatra in 1956, Sandra was likely to be Mahal’s only brush with the wild.

She came to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 1963 and had nine babies of her own. But she hadn’t handled a baby in 20 years, and at age 51, she was old. Orangutans usually live until their 40s in the wild but can live longer in captivity.

Arthritic and a bit grizzled about the face, Sandra had little energy for play or negotiations.

“She wanted that baby, and she was going to hold him,” says Hollingsworth, the Colorado Springs zookeeper. Sandra didn’t care whether Mahal felt the same way.

On Nov. 29, Mahal went into Sandra’s enclosure screaming. He clung to the mesh. She pulled him off. He screamed and fought her.

“She just hugged him and was like, ‘You might not like this now, but you’re going to be my kid,’ ” Hollingsworth says.

Mahal cried a lot that first day and night. Sandra tried to make him stay on her, sometimes restraining him. But in a few days, Sandra and Mahal seemed to figure each other out. Sandra realized she didn’t need to hold him all the time.

“Once he realized she was pretty cool, he wanted to be on her,” Hollingsworth says.

Keepers watched their bond deepen daily. Mahal kissed Sandra all over her face. Sometimes he’d suck on her chin. He clung to her much of the time, and they always slept together.

About 20 days after Mahal entered Sandra’s enclosure, Hollingsworth went to wake her. But Sandra didn’t move.

As usual, Mahal was sleeping on her. “He kind of realized something was wrong at the same time I did,” Hollingsworth says.

Sandra was dead. Mahal let out a high-pitched whimper when keepers pulled him from her.

###

Terry Kohler figures they’ve spent more than $1 million on conservation efforts over the years.

His reason for carting around birds and eggs is uncomplicated.

“One of the responsibilities the good Lord gave us is to take care of His creation,” Kohler says. “The good Lord has blessed us beyond our comprehension, actually.”

So when Milwaukee zoo officials heard about Mahal, they sent an e-mail to the Kohlers.

“There is a nine-month-old orangutan at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado who is in desperate need of a surrogate mother,” wrote Roberta Wallace, senior staff veterinarian at the zoo. “The natural mother was abusive and rejected the infant.”

Milwaukee has an excellent surrogate, she said. The baby needs 24-hour care, and sending him by commercial airline cargo was out of the question. Could the Kohlers provide a pilot and a plane?

Terry Kohler sat in the living room of his home in Punta Gorda, Fla., going through e-mails on his laptop. His wife was packing for their trip the next day to their log cabin in rural Puerto Montt, Chile. The Kohlers spend winters in the two-bedroom cabin, which has no electricity. Terry Kohler draws on power from an outside generator to make tea for his wife in the morning.

He read the letter and chuckled.

To Mary Kohler, the baby orangutan was like the whooping cranes – an ambassador species.

“The conservationists know that they need to use the cute species and the cute animals to make the case,” she says. “Snakes won’t make the case for you, even though you may want to preserve them.”

The Kohlers did have a few concerns. Just how big is a baby orangutan? How strong? Would he tear apart the leather seats?

But if zoo officials were asking for help, the Kohlers believed it was needed.

The couple agreed that if a pilot were available, they should do it. They would pick up the tab for this flight: $8,000.

Mary Kohler finished packing, and her husband wrote back, copying his assistant, Mary Ten Haken, and pilot Mike Mauer in Sheboygan:

“This is almost too much to believe, but too much to refuse, either! Am copying Mary T. and Mike, and if they agree, let’s do it.”

Technorati Tags: TerryKohler, MilwaukeeZoo, Orangutans