Sepilok, Sabah

Even after we had seen orang utans in the wild, we still decided to go and explore Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre for a day.  Although tourists normally have to watch the amazing apes from a distance, we got up close and personal with one inquisitive female.   Watch our youtube clip below.

This place does an incredible job rescuing orphaned and injured baby orang utans, all too common in the rapidly expanding palm oil plantations.  They are rehabilitated over many years, taught all the basic skills they need to survive in the wild.  The infants are completely dependent.  As they grow and learn they are slowly introduced to larger and larger areas of the surrounding forrest as their bonds with humans weaken and they begin to fend for themselves.  There's the buddy system too, where stronger orang utans will look after the weaker ones.  This program has been so successful that there are now rehabilitated females with babies, and we were lucky enough to see one!  Once fully independent (5-10years), selected individuals are relocated by helicopter to Tobin, a large area of unspoilt forrest close to Danum Valley.

Female Orang Utan with Baby, Sepilok

A short walk from the rehabilitation centre is the Rainforest Discovery Centre where we did a canopy walk 10m above the ground, and a trail walk that led us to the 'Sepilok Giant'.

Sepilok Giant

It was so incredibly hot, but the gardens were beautiful and it was a great way to spend our last day in Sabah, Borneo!