Dr Ating Foundation

Dr Ating Foundation Through Dr. Ating Foundation, Ating Solihin MD and his wife Meidy carry out conservation protecting wildlife (babirusa, macaque. tarsier, etc.) Indonesia.
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of Wallacea Ecoregion. Due to limited fund, effort restricted on Malenge Island, Togeans, Sulawesi. Dr Ating Foundation's main purpose is to help dr Ating and his team to build a well functioning health and conservation organization in the Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Macaque mothers carry their baby in the bosom but sometimes on their back or shoulder. Meidy managed to take the photos ...
14/05/2026

Macaque mothers carry their baby in the bosom but sometimes on their back or shoulder. Meidy managed to take the photos the one on the back and shoulder. When I saw the photos, I remembered Janey once rode her on shoulder over the sea. Where and what are you now, our dear daughter?

13/05/2026

No view is more joyful than swinging free monkeys on tree, especially the little ones. And we see this almost every day on the hill just 100 meters behind our house.
The Hanoman macaque troop come for bananas, mangoes, coconuts and other fruits we provide. They wait for us at the feeding spot quietly and patiently, a behavior we managed to teach--a year ago they still entered our yard as far as our windows. But now they would call us from the spot to announce their arrival.
Feeding wild primates is not a good conservation measure but we have done this as the only way to reduce their risk to be trapped and slaughtered in the coconut groves on Malenge Island. Their population has decreased fast, from more than 300 to fewer than 100 within twenty years. As they live only on Malenge Island, their survival chance as a distinct species is very slim. The Hanoman troop might be the last troop in Togean Islands in the next ten years.
The concern with feeding monkeys is the the possibilty of developing aggresive behavior toward human beings, which is noticed in Bali. But it does not happen in our place because only Meidy and I have close contact with them. The other concern is dependency on human beings. It seems not happen either with the Hanoman troop. There are times they do not come for days because fruits are abundant in the forest, which is the same behavior of babirusas we feed.

VOLUNTEER neededCountry: INDONESIAMain Island: SulawesiLocation: Malenge Island, Togean IslandsSite: MATAHARI WILDLIFE S...
01/05/2026

VOLUNTEER needed
Country: INDONESIA
Main Island: Sulawesi
Location: Malenge Island, Togean Islands
Site: MATAHARI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
Task: Help managing the Sanctuary (clear undergrowth by machete and branch cutter is one)
Length of duty: 5 hours in the morning, 6 days a week
Cost: USD 15 per day for meals
Benefits:
* free accommodation
* snorkeling, kayaking
* trekking
* visiting Bajo (sea nomad) village
* living in tranquil secluded bay

Merit:
Help save endemic endangered wildlife such as tarsier, macaque, babirusa (pigdeer), cuscus, hornbill, coconut crab, monitor lizard, etc.

Website:
www.dratingfoundation.org

Facebook:
Dr Ating Foundation

Email: [email protected]

OVERVIEW
Malenge Island is particularly known for its stunning natural beauty and biodiversity.
Located in the Togean Islands, the island is home to various endemic endangered species such as Malenge macaques, Togian tarsier (the smallest primate in Asia), Togian babirusa (pigdeer that inspired Alfred R. Wallace to develop theory of evolution), Togian cuscus (marsupial like koala in Australia), Sulawesi hornbill (big bird like toucan).
In addition, Malenge Island offers stunning beaches, tropical forests, and opportunities for snorkeling,
diving, and trekking. A 1-km bridge connects two parts of the island, providing breathtaking views of the surrounding ocean. And the island is inhabited by the Bajo people, known for their nomadic humble living as fishermen and copra farmers.
Overall, Malenge Island is a haven for nature lovers, wildlife enthusiasts, and those seeking a tranquil, off-the-beaten-path destination.

Matahari Wildlife Sanctuary is a bay surrounded by verdant hills on Malenge Island. The land—bought as the only effective way to save Malenge babirusa and macaque from trapping and killing by local farmers and poachers—has diverse ecosystems. It consists of deep sea, coral-reefs, seaweed, and shore of mixed mud, sand, pebble, and rock; the west cliff is lined by mangroves two hundreds meter inland; and these mangroves scatter to the lagoon behind the shore line, the habitat of water birds and brackish water fauna. Coconut trees cover the lower hills and above them is the monsoon forest.

28/04/2026

I heard faint distant voices from the house steps but was not sure if it was theirs. "Prince!" Instantly a choir replied my call.
Meidy laughed inside our bedroom, "They are here." The Hanoman troop she meant, the visiting macaques, and Prince is one of them. They were waiting for us sweetly and patiently on the foothill at the back of our yard. We never dreamt of the macaques replying our call in the first nine years because they were very elusive--no clear photo of them I managed to take in the forest.
Looking at them eating bananas and coconuts almost every day is our joy and it has been also a solace since Janey, our macaque daughter we rescued, passed away three months ago. She was one of 70 or fewer endemic macaques on Malenge Island.

23/04/2026

"Unbelievable. Ted divorced at 75," a good friend of mine told me the news she just received in Yogyakarta in 1988. In 2022, she informed me that her own marriage fell apart, and it was unbelievable to me. They looked so romantic in Yogyakarta then--both are very educated from one of the best universities in the USA--and had had two grown-up children when the divorce occurred.
The outcome of marriage might be the most difficult thing to predict. Albert Einstein was able to create a formula to predict the expansion of the universe and Bertrand Russel is famous for his intelligence and wisdom, but their first marriages collapsed. Probably the immaturiry is the reason because they were still young. But why is the divorce rate among post-mature couples also high?
This question reminds me of a tourist who said, "You must love each other very much."
" Why do you think so?" I asked him.
"It is very difficult to live with someone 24 hours for many years, especially in the place nobody around." He is absolutely right. With nobody around in our secluded bay on Malenge Island for twelve years, it is a miracle that our marriage survives. We have to be grateful to the animals around us because they are the "glue" of our marriage. Our daily life revolves around them: dogs, cats, birds, chickens, macaques, tarsiers, and babirusas. Thus, the shared joyful passion is the glue of an unbreakable marriage. In ours, Janey has been the stickiest one, during and after her life.

20/04/2026

Among many kinds of love, the love between mother and child is the most beautiful for me. But in human society, this love is not always so because it is often contaminated by expectation from the mother. She wish her child to be a ... man or woman when they grow up. And her love might fade or even disappear if the child refuses or fails to fulfill her wish years later.
In animal groups like macaque or babirusa we see every day, this mother's love seems sincere. The mothers do not wish their children becoming a rich, famous, or powerful monkey. They might just wish them becoming a healthy and happy monkey living in peace with the other monkeys in the troop.

30/03/2026

In my previous reel an adult macaque rides Madonna, a female babirusa. One hour ago her daughter La Bebe got her turn, ridden by a young macaque.
The video shows the harmony of life between free animals from different species (both endemic-endangered) in the wilderness of Malenge Island. If there is enough food for everyone, there is no reason to fight. But why do humans never stop fighting (going war) even though food is available more than enough for everyone in the world?
P.S.
In the video, a macaque mother carries a new baby in her bosom. Unlike Punch in Japan, our wild macaque baby become orphan only when its mother killed by predators, either human or python. We rescued one (Janey) by human and are trying to help one (Omi) by python because she is the lowest rank in the macaque troop, bullied by everybody and only eat the remains of food.

24/03/2026

We watched at the macaque troop savouring bananas in front of us this afternoon. Among them four babirusas moved around. We know the macaque and babirusa are in peaceful relationship, at least in our place. But we didn't expect they are so friendly between them before Meidy called me, "Gyp, Gyp, look!"
I turned my head to the left and was astounded. Luckily Meidy recorded the event in time with her cellphone. I doubt we will see again "macaque riding babirusa."

19/03/2026

A motor boat landed ashore when I still did morning meditation beside Janey's grave on the top of Janey Hill. Down were two foreigners on the yard next to our house. They came from Papan (Sea Nomad Bajo) Island for seeing babirusa and were lucky. Baru and Neo were still eating coconuts Meidy cracked for them. And she talked to the Australian couple for about an hour while the man was busy rubbing and massaging Baru--Neo had gone after the man tried to touch him. They were amazed seeing Meidy make Baru lying down. On departing the couple left donation USD 12 in rupiah.
In the afternoon another couple with two children from Netherlands came for seeing babirusa too. This time only Jamu, a young male, showed up. As he was still evasive, the family had to be satisfied seeing a babirusa from 15 meters away for a few minutes because Jamu left soon with a shell of coconut in his mouth. We received donation the same amount, USD 12.
Another motor boat landed ashore late in the afternoon. The man on the boat is one of our banana suppliers and he dropped 32 bunches of bananas.
"How much for all?" Meidy asked him from the house. He didn't say the price immediately. "How much for one string of bananas?" One string is usually two or three bunches of bananas, depending the size.
"Fifteen thousands," finally he dared say it.
"Let me see." Meidy came out and had a look on the bananas. "They are smaller than normally you brought." Indeed, they are not as big as before. "Ten thousands."
The man grinned showing his awarenes of the truth. "Tonight Moslem New Year evening." We knew what he intended to say. He had no money to celebrate the New Year with his family. He broke our hearts and we paid him USD 20. He looked grateful and we were happy. "His children will get a New Year gift from him now," I said to Meidy. "People are generous toward us if we are also generous to others." In fact these banana and coconut suppliers should be grateful to the macaques and babirusas. They have helped these poor families with the donation from the tourists who want to meet them.
P.S.
This post is written for Sabrina and Felix who have just donated their birthday's gift to us from Germany this week. Thanks Felix and Sabrina from babirusas and macaques of Malenge Island.

17/03/2026

"I wish Coco bring his wife and children here," I said to Meidy years ago.
"Dreaming again."
Yes, it had been my dream to see a family of babirusas since we settled on Malenge Island in 2014. Thousands of hours walking in the forest, I only saw babirusa less than ten seconds from more than ten meters. They are very evasive to human beings, wich is a smart survival behavior.
In 2019 a German tourist donated one camera trap and sold me another. With these cameras I recorded wallowing babirusas in a valley deep in the forest, two-hour walk from our home crossing rugged terrain. But the quality and composition are not good because it was dark and the camera is black-and-white.
Since 2020 two babirusas had visited our home for the coconuts we provided. Chocho did not live long, however; our neighbor's dog wounded and the infected wound might have killed him later. The other one, Coco, was around us by himself until Baru, another male babirusa, came in 2023. But Coco passed away last year without bringing his family to us.
It took us four years to get full trust from male babirusas-5 now, 2 passed away--but we have never been able to get trust from any female babirusa. They are "paranoid". However, now we have three female babirusas visit us regularly: Madonna (mother), La Chica (big sister), and La Bebe (little sister). Though they still run away when we approach them, at least they didn't mind being recorded by Meidy with her cellphone from our dining room today. My dream came true because it is a clear video of a family B. togeanensis, one of the rarest big mammals in the world.

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