Hope is now recovering in an enclosure. She has learned through touch to accept a papaya or bottle of milk from a keeper.

Nearby, orphaned orangutans whimper and squeak. When Hope hears the babies, she curls into a fetal position and cries out.

Orangutans share nearly 97 percent of their DNA sequence with humans. The remaining 3 percent do not preclude Hope from mourning her baby. Her body is still producing milk.

“Hope’s body was broken, she lost her vision and her baby, and now she’s a wild animal in a cage,” said Yenny Saraswati, a veterinarian at the center. “I can’t think of a more stressful situation.”

Back in Bunga Tanjung, Hope’s shadow lingers. The teenager, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, has been questioned by the police, but because he’s underage it’s not clear whether he will be charged. No adults have come forward to claim responsibility for Hope’s many injuries.

The teenager has given up his dream of becoming a mechanic and rarely comes home now, according to his father, Aliong Sitepu. “He’s always in a bad mood,” Mr. Aliong said. “I don’t know how to talk to him.”

Sitting outside his wooden shack, the jungle heat oppressing every pore, Mr. Aliong wondered whether it was time to leave this place, where the fruit of an African palm had failed to make his fortune. An orange beast, he said, had cursed the family.

“Is this a fair world,” he said, “in which my son’s life is worth less than an orangutan’s?”