Friday, April 22, 2011 | By: Deb

SEMENGGOK ORANGUTAN REHABILITATION SANCTUARY


On the last day of my time with Lars and Lisa we went to the Semonggok Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, located south of Kuching. It is a sanctuary used to rehabilitate orangutans which have been injured or captured.

The rehabilitated animals roam freely in the rainforest, and often return to the centre at feeding time at 9am and 4pm where tourists can view whomever shows up on viewing platforms for an hour. They have had a successful breeding program at Semonggok and with several mom's and babies around and we were lucky enough to see one of them.

Since 1975 the center has been accepting animals either orphaned, injured, or rescued from captivity and reintroducing them back into the wild.

The Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is not a zoo; unless quarantined, the animals are not kept in cages and are free to roam about the forest canopy. The primary goal of the wildlife center is to actually rehabilitate animals and get them back into the wild if at all possible.
The center offers a rare opportunity to view orangutans in a natural habitat; many orangutans in the refuge are considered semi-wild and rarely come back to the rehabilitation center.

Orangutan means "forest people" in the local language; the name fits their superior intelligence and human-like personalities. In 1996 a team of researchers witnessed a group of orangutans making sophisticated tools - and sharing them - for extracting seeds from fruit.

Orangutans are native only to Borneo and Sumatra and are considered extremely endangered. Of the estimated 61,000 orangutans existing in the wild, a little over 54,000 live on the island of Borneo. Female orangutans typically produce only one offspring every seven or eight years, hence the dwindling population.
Richie, the alpha male and dad to all the babies. Busy man!



Mom and baby eating pineapple.



Seduku - the "grandmother" at the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre - was born in 1971 and has given birth to several offspring. Ritchie - the alpha male in the refuge - weighs over 300 pounds and was rescued by a journalist. Most of the orangutans at the center are named and the rangers can easily identify them with a glance. We were lucky to see Richie who is so huge and very hairy! He looks like a Sasquatch! They sleep in nests that they build fresh every night way up in the top of the trees...you can see them all over the place if you just look up.

VIDEOS OF THE ORANGUTANS BELOW:


RICHIE CLIMBING ACROSS THE ROPE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF BANANA'S



MAKING HIS ESCAPE WITH SOME SUGARCANE FROM ONE OF THE RANGERS.


MOM AND HER BABY HANGING AROUND.

This was an awesome experience! It was amazing to be so close to the orangutans.




1 comments:

FairyGirl said...

What an amazing experience to see these orangutans. I haven't had a chance to view the videos yet, but will do when Sean wakes up. He's had a rough week. He had stomach pain the other night and turns out he has gallstones and a swollen stomach, etc. Spent the night at Rockyview. Fun stuff. Fill you in when you get home. All is well here. Really enjoying your blog.

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