After being ill for four days I had missed lots of work so was eager to get back. I had 5 days left of my final placement – husbandry. In the morning of the placement, first thing – we trek for half an hour to a platform in the jungle where the rangers observe the orang-utans that have been through the rehabilitation process at sepilok and have been released into the wild. There are lots of orang-utans that come here every day – mainly for food but I also think to see all their friends. We simply go and observe them all eating, drinking and being wild orang-utans. This is my favourite part of the placement as the orang-utans are finally able to be free and being able to watch how they interact with each other in the wild is incredible. We have seen about 20 orangutans here from day to day. Once they are ready to be set free into the wild they are marked with a number so they can be easily identified in case of an accident – they also all have names. Some of their names are Toby, Broc, Naru, Rosa, Rosalinda, Ostin, Hope, Eniro, Anne, Ankong, Tompong, Oscar, Tiger, Mishkam, Mariko, Mimi, Roni and C-Chel, Sogo Sogo, Atama and many many more. Toby and Broc are the naughtiest ones and we always need to watch out for them. I can notice Naru really well as he has loads of freckles all over his face. Rosa is also really recognisible as she is the smallest and is 9 years old. Oscar, Tiger and Mishkam are the big males and were scary at first but now are pretty big softies.
Sogo Sogo holds a special place in my heart, she is 5, really furry and ginger with a beautiful face and is the newest released rehabilitated orang-utans. She came in to Sepilok when she was orphaned at 1 years old. She is being tracked by a primatologist here from Canada – Lauren and a few research assistants. Their job is basically to follow her around the jungle on the ground though whilst she is in the trees and observe her behaviour. This is to check nothing happens to her in her first few months of being released.
For the rest of the morning and in the afternoon also we go down to the tourist platform where the tourists watch the orang-utans being fed and are our job is to look out for the welfare of the orang-utans. Therefore we make sure the tourists are quiet, they don’t get too close to any wildlife, they don’t use flashes and so on, and we are also there to answer any questions the tourists have. However it is never as simple as that – a lot of the orang-utans as they have come through the sepilok rehabilation process are quite tame and therefore think it’s acceptable to come climbing down to the tourist platform where the tourists are standing. However if one of the tourists happened to touch the orang-utan then they would have to be put in quarantine for 3 months to be tested for any diseases that the person could have passed on, thus it is important for us to keep the tourists far away from the orang-utans.
Sogo Sogo as she is newly rehabilated keeps coming down to tourist platform, on my first day she came down three times and we have to walk her off the platform, sometimes enticing her with bananas to get her off as safely and quickly as possible. We then have to make sure she got back into the jungle safely. I think Sogo is quite lonely at the moment as her friend Atama (also newly rehabilitated) is ill at the moment and is in the clinic. Usually you can’t find these two apart but at the moment Sogo is just wondering around the jungle on her own. I think this is another reason why she keeps coming down to the tourist platform. Unfortunately on Wednesday, Sogo didn’t come down from her nest so they had to entice her down with food at midday to check whether she was ill. They will take her to the clinic to be tested and I will keep you updated. But it is very unusual for an orang-utan not to have come out of their nests by midday – especially when there is food at the feeding platform.
However there is another orang-utan that is a similar age to Sogo and that is Roni. Roni is also 5 and the son of Mimi. Mimi came to Sepilok when she was young and went through the rehabilitation process and then released into the wild. She had Roni by herself in the jungle and also only last month had another baby C-Chel who is tiny and absolutely gorgeous. C-Chel just holds onto her mothers stomach all day and Roni is never too far away from Mimi. Usually young orang-utans stay with their mothers till about 6-7 years old but because C-Chel was born, Roni had to mature earlier than usual. If Roni is about, you know Mimi isn’t far away. So since C-Chel was born, Mimi has been occupied and therefore giving Roni lots of time to play with my favourite, Sogo.
Roni as he was born in the wild is a much better climber than Sogo but it is really nice to see them playing together. Roni is also not scared of anything – he goes and teases the macaques and also the older orang-utans too – he is ruthless. But Sogo on the other hand is not so confident and you often she her hanging back from the feeding platform waiting for the big males and females to leave before she can get some food.
As for the older orang-utans – Mishkam has his eye on two ladies for mating at the moment – Eyos and Britt. The other day, Britt and Mishkam were playing on the feeding platform and Eyos hung near us just squealing and kissing her lips at them – I think this means she wasn’t happy and slightly jealous.
There are also lots of adventures on the tourist platform. One in particular was on Wednesday; we had 5 orang-utans come down onto the tourist platform. Our main goal when this happens is to get the orang-utans away from the tourists as quickly as possible and back into the jungle. However we also want to have the least amount of contact with them as well. One orang-utan Oscar who is always playing up came down and as I offered my hand to walk with him, he just climbed on to me. This isn’t the best scenario but I walked off the platform quickly. Oscar is a big male and weighs close to 40kilos. I walked a few minutes into the jungle to drop him at a tree but he just wouldn’t get off me. I then slipped on the mud with him on my back and even when I was stuck in the mud, he still wouldn’t get off. It was so difficult pulling myself out of the mud with a 40kilo orang-utan on my back. I went to find some rangers to ask for some help getting him off but they told me I would just have to walk 30 minutes into the jungle with him as that is where he wants to go. I walked uphill with him on me and it was extremely exhausting – the rangers had to push us up the hill as he was so heavy. I had had enough by half way and asked if they could try and get him off and as they did, all he was doing was trying to bite them. He was very happy on me. As he got more aggravated, his grip around me got tighter and he didn’t mean it to hurt me, he just didn’t know his own strength. He had his arm wrapped around my neck and was choking me. This went on for ten minutes before they managed to get him down and then he ran off on his own. I came back to the tourist platform extremely flustered.
The tourist platform has been a great experience, it has been amazing talking to the tourists about the orang-utans and realising how much I have learnt about them. The whole placement has been incredible. I now have such a keen interest in conservation and the rehabilitation of orang-utans. I feel I have learnt so much from all the rangers working at Sepilok as well as the malay locals. I have learnt loads about the rainforest, insects and birds, as well as lots of primates. I would recommend volunteering at Sepilok to anyone. Being able to watch the babies progressing at climbing as well as watching the rehabilitated orang-utans interacting in the wild has been extraordinary. I am going to be so sad to leave here on Saturday and also to leave all the wonderful people I have met. Today is Thursday and our last day of work. Tomorrow is my birthday and our last day at Sepilok, we are having a farewell party to say goodbye and then head to Rasa Ria for our last night before going our separate ways on Sunday.