Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

A wild female orangutan with a baby in tow had made its way to the feeding platform that morning from the surrounding forest. Here she was socialising with another mother orangutan and it was lovely to see them interacting with their babies. It looked as if the visiting mother was giving breast-feeding advice to the other young mother helping her work out which breast had most milk, whilst helping the baby to properly latch on.

It was such an amazing encounter and an unusual one because for the most part orangutans live solitary lives in the forest, with the female raising her babies on her own. The Sepilok buffet breakfast however, made for a lovely opportunity to socialise for these mums in the forest and an awesome spectacle for their close relatives; us humans viewing from the wooden walkway.   

CLOSE RELATIVES

And we are indeed close relatives sharing nearly 97% of the same DNA. It is no wonder that in Bahasa – the national language here in Malaysia (and Indonesia) the name Orang-Hutan literally translates into English as “person of the forest”.

They are very fascinating to watch and luckily, we had brought along our binoculars so we could really get a close look at these cousins of ours. Another young adult orangutan came in to feed and seemed to want to hold the baby but was quickly fended off by the protective mothers. It then decided to “crack on” with a coconut, banging the hard shell against the wood, revealing thirst-quenching coconut juice.

THE PLIGHT OF THE ORANGUTAN

A mother orangutan will only have a baby every 8 years or so – apparently the longest time between births of any mammal on earth. Her babies will breastfeed until they are about six years old. The young males will stay with their mother a few years after that and the female offspring sometimes stay with their mother well into their teens; the longest of any animal in the world.

Young orangutans have so many important skills to learn and perfect before they are ready to start their independent and primarily arboreal lives – I read that they spend about 80% of their time in the trees and they built a nest in the canopy every night to sleep in.   

Because female orangutans only have about 4 to 5 babies in their lifetime the orangutan populations are sensitive and very slow to recover from disturbance. Sadly, much of their habitat here in Borneo is disappearing as the forest is cut down to make space for farming of oil palm trees.

This has resulted in the orangutans – one of humankind’s closest relatives – being critically endangered. Their forests and habitat need urgent attention and protection if their species are to survive.

WHAT CAN WE DO MUMMY?

I imagine other parents would agree that providing your kids with an understanding of the state of our climate and environment and balancing the facts with reassuring optimism and actual solutions, when you yourself feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all, is challenging at the best of times.

That is when it really helps to know, and to tell the kids (and yourself!), that there are some amazing people here in Borneo (and around the world), that work with politicians and with communities to find ways for us all to live together and to ensure the survival of the Orangutans and the many other species under threat from deforestation and forest conversions.

CONSERVATION IN SABAH

Here in Sabah for example, we can support the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre by visiting the centre. It is located in a forest reserve near Sandakan on Sabah’s east coast. Here they care for young orphaned orangutan that are the victims of poaching, illegal logging and deforestation. They also care for displaced and injured wild orangutans.

Through Orangutan Appeal UK you can donate money towards the care of the orangutans at the Sepilok centre and orangutan conservation. They also offer an adoption program, which in my opinion makes the donation much more personal and is something young kids can really appreciate – even if they live millions of miles away. Read more about Sepilok and Orangutan Appeal UK here.

HUTAN is another organisation here in Sabah that works to protect wildlife and ensure a future where orangutans and humans coexist. This local team collaborates with a diverse network of local and international partners and through the community based “Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme” (KOPC); they manage and protect wildlife in the Kinabatangan – home of the Bornean Orangutans.

#Orangutan #deforestation #conservation #kidsandnature #wildlife #borneo #sabahtourism #enchantingsabah