After a 5 hour bus journey we arrived in Sepilok, well at the junctionof the main road and the road to Sepilok. Luckily a friendly local gave us a lift to our hotel / jungle lodge. The lodge a 5 minute walk from the Sepilok Orang Utan rehabilitation center.
Once wide spread throughout South East Asia the Orang Utan can now only be found in small populations across Sumatra and Borneo. Its not difficult to see why, on route all we could see in every direction was palm oil plantations which, have replaced the native rainforest. With a diet consisting of over 200 food plants there is no way these great apes can survive outside their environment.
Perhaps our closest relative the Orang Utan shares 94.6% of its DNA with humans. The name Ornag Utan translates to "Man of the Forest" At the rehabilitation center you get the chance to see released Orang Utan's in the first stage of release. Many are brought to the center as babies, cared for by humans until they can start to fend for themselves.
Rehab works as follows:
1. Young Orang Utan is rescued from the wild after being abandoned by its mother
2. They are looked after much like human babies until they can start fending for themselves
3. They are then moved to cages on the outskirts of a protected rainforest reserve next to the center
4. They are released from the cages and slowly adjust to their new environment, returning to the center each night
5. A set of feeding platforms in the forest gradually leads the Orang Utans away from the center. Some stay close to the center, others come and go and some disappear off into the forest
The only part of the rehab you see is the first feeding platform where all these pictures were taken, unlike other apes the Ornag Utan doesn't have a tail, therefore it has to walk or climb through the trees as it cant jump like a monkey. As you can see from the photos these guys are remarkable agile.Highlights: Watching the graceful antics of such a rare animal in the wild
1 comment:
Hello Adam, I wonder if you will remember me?, I used to work with you at Chiltern aquatics many moons ago now, and I lived in Barton le-clay. You will know me better as Danni. I came across your blog, because I was looking at photographs of Orangutans, it was only when I saw your name that I realised I knew you! I work for the Oragutan appeal uk and they manage and fund the work at Sepilok in Malaysia (small world) as it turns out, I was going to email you about the photos you have, as I am sure you are aware, work at Sepilok is vitally important and we try and keep contact with the Orangutans to a minimum so photographing them proves difficult. As a result we tend not to have very many good shots, so it would be wonderful if you would be willing to donate your images to us to use in our calenders and information leaflets? I completely understand if this is not something you wish to do.
Anyway it is lovely to see that you are happy and I wish you well for the future,
danni x
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