Borneo – The Orang-utans Of Sepilok

It’s unlikely to escape the attention of anyone passing through Sandakan that the area is known for its orang-utans, a word that literally means “man of the forest”.

Orang-utans are under acute pressure in many areas of Borneo as their forest habitat is logged and cleared for agriculture, with remaining tracts of habitat becoming fragmented and isolated. 

Close to Sandakan, visitors can head for the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre & Reserve, which is dedicated to conserving these fascinating and unique apes by rehabilitating orphaned, illegally captive, sick and injured animals so that they can be returned to protected areas of the forest.

Twice a day, visitors can walk along a boardwalk through mature jungle to an area where released orang-utans can return to be fed by the centre staff on a viewing platform. It’s a great thing to witness and gives hope that the species will survive its human onslaught.

There’s a visitor centre, a shop and small museum chronicling the fate of orang-utans and other threatened species in the Far East. The centre depends on visitors and donations for much of its revenue and it’s also possible of adopt individual animals; we adopted a young male called Sen for our son Zac, at a cost of £30 per year.

For anyone staying overnight in the area, it’s really worthwhile to organise a night walk in the forest. We did an excellent walk from the Sepilok Nature Resort (where we stayed for our final night in Borneo), but it’s not for the faint hearted. During an hour and a half, we’d encountered a phenomenal number of snakes, spiders and centipedes and also glimpsed owls, roosting birds, bats and a flying squirrel. And watch out for the leeches, I’ll say no more on that one!!