To see the orang-utan

Wednesday 22 September
We took an early morning flight from Kota Kinabalu across the island of Borneo to Sandakan on the east coast. Sandakan is a port city on the Sulu Sea. Nearby is the famous Sepilok Orang-utan rehabilitation centre and sanctuary. The sanctuary was set up to help orphaned orang-utans whose mothers had abandoned them or been killed. (Much of the rainforest where the orang-utan lived has been cleared and tbe timber sold. In other places rainforest is cleared away so that palm oil trees can be planted. So, the orang-utan have lost a place to live and their food supply). You can read a kidcyber page about orang-utans here

This orang-utan swung out of its nest
and down to the feeding platform

The people at the centre care for these young orang-utans, by feeding them, keeping them safe and by teaching them the skills they will need to learn before they can be set free into the wild.
The orang-utans that live in the sanctuary are free to build their nests in the trees and gather their own food, but twice each day they are fed bananas and other fruits by the sanctuary workers. Visitors are able to watch as the orang-utans come out of the forest for this food.
There is now an attempt to save some areas of forest for the orang-utan so that the species can survive. And there is an awareness that tourists will come to see the forest and the wildlife, which means jobs for people and money for the businesses that provide services for the tourists. No one would come to Malaysia to see palm oil plantations!