Orangutans

Orangutans fascinate me. In Malay, "orang" means man and "utan" means forest. Man of the forest, and nothing could be more apt for this lovable creature. They can walk upright, are gentle and peaceful, and appear to have no enemies except man. And man has been cruel. Rampant deforestation in Sumatra and Borneo and the killing of mothers to steal the babies (who are then sold as pets) have decimated their numbers. While I was in KK, I read a newspaper report of orangutan being kept in small, filthy cages, like the bears kept in captivity in China for their bile. According to one estimate, only 22,000 forest-dwelling orangutans are left in Borneo and a mere 5,000 in the vast island of Sumatra. 


One aim of my trip to Kota Kinabalu was to see orangutans. But they are hard to see in the wild. In Sri Lanka, wild elephants congregate near waterholes, especially during the dry season, so can be observed in hundreds. This isn't the case with orangutans. A guide in Kota Kinabalu told me that in seven visits to the forest, she had only spotted two orangutans. So, I had to visit a rehabilitation center and a wildlife park.


The Shangri La Rasa Ria Hotel has a Nature Reserve, where, in their own words, "you'll meet our famous Orangutans, rescued animals who stay with us for a few years so they can return to the wild and thrive." It's 64 acres in extent.


I paid MR65 to visit the reserve and there were about 20 visitors that morning. As I was walking up to the observation platform, and even before I had my camera ready, I saw an orangutan hanging to the trunk of a tree within touching distance of the visitors. We were told that she was Ulan, a 3-year old female who had been rescued from a home where she was kept as a pet.

Soon, another orangutan, a females, appeared, but she kept her distance from the visitors. After about 10 minutes, she disappeared into the forest, leaving Ulan to entertain us. And entertain she did.

Ulan climbed trees, rocked dangerously on feeble looking (dead) branches, tore off handfuls of leaves (although she ate only a few of them), and, at least five times, attempted to mingle with the visitors. When she was stopped by the rangers, she lay down and banged her head on the platform floor. I found this behavior startling. I've seen children do this (a "temper tantrum") or it could also be the result of stress or severe frustration. Or, Ulan may have learned this from a human child. The behavior was distressing and I wondered whether she could be rehabilitated to the wild. 


Two sets of visitors are admitted to the reserve, about 20 in the morning and the same number in the afternoon, around feeding time. If Ulan is to be rehabilitated, she needs to be as far away from people as possible. I am no expert on orangutans, but I have enough common sense to realize that Ulan's yearning for human company will not help her to assimilate to forest life. Is Shangri La being unethical here, aiming only for profit? Why do they promote their orangutans so much?

Towards the end of our visit, Ulan sat on the platform and began to spread leaves around her. Was she playing at building a nest?

I don't like zoos because the animals are caged and, for the most part, lead miserable lives. Some zoos masquerade as "wildlife parks", so I wasn't sure what awaited me at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.  went there by taxi and paid MR100 for the driver to wait 2 hours. The entrance fee was only MR20. The park also sheltered elephants, bears, monkeys, two Malayan tigers, deer, birds, and reptiles. I was happy to see some barking deer and observe them at leisure. Over the past 15 years, I may have spotted them perhaps five times around Sai Kung, but they are shy and disappear quickly.

Among Asian countries, the best zoo is undoubtedly Singapore's, where animals have ample space to range freely. For many Asians, animals are either to be eaten or feared as dangerous, wild beasts, to be kept in cages, taunted, and treated badly. But, at Lok Kawi, not all animals were in cages.

All the photos below are from Lok Kawi.

 

The orangutan enclosure had five animals. We sat on a bench and spent more than an hour watching them. I thought the biggest one was the alpha male, but he turned out to be a female and the only baby's mother. The baby not sure if a male or female), after much somersaulting and rolling around, went to the mother and persuaded her to give him/her a ride on her back. As the mother climbed a pole, she reached back to make sure that the baby was firmly on her back. This was a tender, very human gesture.


The other orangutans appeared to be bored, mostly lying around in the sun.  Occasionally, one would pick himself up to swing from a rope. Of course, had there been trees, they would have been more active. But, at Rasa Ria, I saw the quantity of leaves an orangutan could tear off, so the trees would not have lasted long.