August 26 - 27
We slept in on Sunday and then spent the day playing cards, getting a bite to eat at the Damai Center, swimming in the warm China Sea waters and just, in general, relaxing in the beautiful tropical paradise.
The next morning at 8:30, we were greeted by Gosli who would
be taking us to the Semenggoh Wildlife Center, the biggest Orangutan Rehabilitation
Center in Sarawak, and to the Annah Rais Longhouse. Gosli spoke great English and was a wealth of
knowledge about the sites we would be visiting and the history of Sarawak as
well as US politics. Apparently, he is
an avid reader and listens to the US news constantly. I was amazed at how knowledgeable he was about
both his country and ours.
Our first stop was the Semenggoh Wildlife Center,
established in 1975 as a sanctuary for the injured and orphaned orangutans and
as a center to educate visitors about the orangutans in Malaysia and the dire
situation they are in.
I noticed that Gosli was pronouncing "orangutan" like it was two words and, he informed us, it actually is. Urang means man and Utan means forest.
The biggest
problem orangutans face is the destruction of their habitat due to logging,
mining and forest fires, as well as fragmentation of their habitat by roads,
forcing them out of their natural
habitat. Gosli told us that the
sanctuary started with 11 orangutans that were taken from people who had them
as pets and from zoos. The current
population of 31 semi-wild orangutans, roam free within a 740 hectare forest
reserve. Rehabilitated animals are
released into the wild whenever they are ready as, the main goal of the
Semenggoh Wildlife Center is “to rehabilitate confiscated wildlife that have
been incapacitated or handicapped due to prolonged captivity by humans with the
objective of releasing them to the forests eventually.” Gosli informed us that, according to
Sarawak’s Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 on the endangered orangutan, “Any
person found hunting, killing, capturing, selling, offer for sale, importing,
exporting or be in possession of any trophy or flesh shall be guilty of an offense
and shall on conviction be liable to a term of imprisonment of 2 years and a
fine of RM 30,000”(about $7,000 US).
According to Gosli, the Center was opposed to allowing
visitors but, at the insistence of the government, they agreed to allow
visitors to observe the orangutans for one hour in the morning and one hour in
the afternoon during feeding time. So,
we and the other visitors were led into the forest at 9 a.m. after a rather
alarming warning from our guide. He
stressed the importance of remaining quiet and of not making any sudden
movements as, although the orangutans are not aggressive, shortly after he
began working at the Center, he ended up in the hospital as a result of trying
to distract two of the resident males who were battling for dominance. We were led to viewing site, across from
which a staff member was situated on a platform. He had buckets of food and was calling out,
by name, to the resident Orangutans.
The
sighting of orangutans is not guaranteed as the animals are often able to fine
their own food in the surrounding forests but, since the orangutan population
has increased over the years, this isn’t always possible. After about fifteen minutes of patiently
watching, we were rewarded by a mama and her baby who were climbing down to the
feeding platform on one of the many wires that are strung throughout the
forest. It was a joy to watch them
grabbing for food and watch the antics of the baby. What was really amazing was how close to them
the worker was able to be as they came right down to the ground and stood right
next to the worker and was almost the same height as he was.
We watched these two for about 20 minutes before returning
to the entrance where one of the large males had come down. We were able to get a much closer view of
this one eating and I was able to get a great video of him. We watched this guy for another 15 minutes or
so and then our hour of visiting was up.
On our way out I got a few shots of two large knarly crocodiles that, apparently, live amongst the orangutans.
What a fabulous experience this was.
Next blog….a report on our visit to the Longhouse community.
Amanda Frost
2018-09-06
What a surprising collection of photos!
Amanda Frost
2018-09-06
Ritchie reminds me of an embarrassing "someone" who behaves as badly as Ritchie but does like to be photographed and no doubt loves his reflection!
Emily Levy
2018-09-06
Great blog entry Susan. So informative. Love your photos.