Orangutans
Previously, when I heard Borneo the first thing I thought about was orangutans. The famous ginger coloured 'man from the forest'. After I moved to Borneo I have had the opportunity to see orangutans a number of times. They are so fascinating and it's a new experience every time you meet them. You never know what they will do next.
The most famous place to see orangutans is at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sabah. They take care of orphan orangutans that are found alone in the rainforest or in plantations some times. The young orangutans are kept at the centre for a couple of years and trained for a future release back into the rainforest, because of that you can not visit them, the centre doesn't want to encourage them to human contact.
However, there are a number of other orangutans that live in the forests surrounding the centre which you might see if you are lucky. At the centre they have feeding platforms where they put out fruits at certain times during the day. The orangutans often come there to get a free meal.
At Sepilok they also have a program where you can adopt a baby orangutan and support the centre in their work to protect orangutans. We did that when we were there. So for one year we have a baby orangutan called Gelison. During the year the centre sends us photos of him and reports about his progress at the training centre.
If you want to read more about the orangutans at Sepilok and how you can help them you can use this link: Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
Orangutan at Sepilok.
There are also places where you can see orangutans in Sarawak. The best place is Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, just a 30 minutes drive from Kuching. I actually prefer Semenggoh before Sepilok. It's a little less tourists at Semenggoh, the entrance fee is lower and I have always seen more orangutans in Semenggoh than what we did in Sepilok.
At Semenggoh they have two feeding platforms where they put out fruits twice a day. The orangutans are semi-wild and live in the nearby forests. You can visit the feeding platforms during the one hour long feeding sessions. Sightings are not guaranteed since they are wild animals and if they find enough fruits in the forest they might not show up, but the four times I have been there I have seen orangutans. Once we saw more than ten orangutans during the same feeding session!
The 'guards' at Semenggoh.
The big male Richie at Semenggoh.
Comments
didin
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!
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