International Orangutan Day
August 19 is International Orangutan Day – a day to raise awareness about the plight of these great and beautiful apes. Orangutans are native to the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra and are now critically endangered due to various reasons, particularly their habitat being destroyed for palm oil plantations, leaving them no where to live.
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
Orangutans are highly intelligent animals and are one of the world’s largest primates, known for their strong parental bonds, orangutans only give birth every 7-9 years, leading to a slow population growth.
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is located on the island of Borneo, in Sabah, Malaysia.
Archie
We adopted and visited beautiful Archie about 5 years ago when he was only a baby and they were unsure if he would make it or not. I’ve been fortunate enough to see firsthand the amazing work Sepilok Orangutatn Rehabilitation Centre does in order to save as many of these endangered animals as possible, as well as educate and inform people how they can help. See their website below to find out more about the amazing work they do and how you can help, it’s very affordable too!
Our Experience
We flew into Sandakan airport and got a Grab (like Uber), only 20 minutes and stayed at accommodation walking distance to the rehabilitation centre. It costs only 30 Malaysian Ringgit (approximately 10 Australian dollars or 5 British Pounds) for a full day ticket. The public viewing feeding times are 10am and 3pm so we visited twice that day and left for a couple of hours over lunch time, using the same ticket to return for the afternoon feeding. We watched the younger ones playing in the outdoor nursery after, they can come and go from the outdoor nursery as they please. The more they grow and mature, the deeper they put their food into the jungle in attempt to encourage them to leave the nursery eventually.
Archies Progress
Archie spent a long while in the indoor nursery where visitors aren’t able to go in order to keep the fragile animals safe – Archie had to be bottle fed due to being orphaned and sick as a baby, he is now a strong and healthy orangutan, although still visits the outdoor nursery very often on his own accord. We get a newsletter twice yearly and emails to update us on how Archie, now 8 years old, is progressing.