Semenggoh Nature Reserve

Did you know that the word orang-utan means man of the forest in Malay? Or that the scientific name given to orang-utans is pongo pygmaeus? (they must smell up close). These are just some of the facts that you can find out if you visit (as we did) the nature reserve at Semenggoh, near Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. You also get the chance to see some of the 22 semi-wild orang-utans that are "housed" within the reserve. The aim of the wildlife centre is to rehabillitate the orang-utans and eventually set them out into the wild. However, the orang-utans have often been kept as pets for a number of years before being confiscated and brought here, so they lack survival skills. The nature reserve is made up of a few hundred hectares of Dipterocarp Forest (ones that contain several types of fruiting trees) and so the orang-utans are free to roam the area for their food. They also get fed twice during the day. We went to see an afternoon troughing session and were lucky enough to see around 8 orang-utans - which included a few mums and babies, as well as the dominant male (no, not Andyb); Ritchie.

A picture of the big man. Ritchie now weighs a humungous 110kgs (2 Lisab's). He is now around 18 years old, and has obvious flanges (cheek pads). These start to grow when the male orang-utan reaches about 10-15 years, but only if there are no other dominant males around. Apparently, the bigger the cheeks, the more success he'll have with the ladies, as females are attracted to big 'uns. For their size, orang-utans are strong. It is said that (fully grown) male orang-utans have the strength of six men. We don't know how this "fact" was arrived at. We don't know if there was a fight between six Malay men and one orang-utan (because Malay men are quite small on the whole and this could skew the figures).

Mum and her "baby" which we think is about 2 years old. The infants stay with their mum until they are about 5 years, when mum chucks them out of the nest to breed again - aww.

Learning the ropes.

These are a few videos of the orang-utans showing off their tree climbing and swinging skills!

We had really enjoyed seeing the orang-utans at the Singapore zoo - but we much preferred seeing them here in their more natural environment. Because the orang-utans have a large area to roam, it felt special to see them arrive for a spot of fruit; not all of them turn up at feeding time. We were also very glad that we didn't listen to the man at the National Sarawak Museum who told us that we shouldn't bother to visit the orang-utans that afternoon because it was going to thunder and they don't like thunder, so they hide, and we wouldn't see them. We should instead join him and two other American tourists for a visit to another wild life sanctuary where for a bargain 160 ringitts (27 pounds) we were guaranteed to see a few animals (including orang-utans) in cages. Needless to say, it didn't thunder and we saw lots!