Please excuse the location posted on this blog post but this site will not allow me to change it. I was actually in Sepilok, Sabah, Malaysia

This morning is possibly one of the main reasons why I chose to come on this tour. Today we visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, a respected, government-run centre, located in Sepilok near Sandakan. The Orangutan Sanctuary is a large 4300-hectare of lush greenery in the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve and the aim of the centre is to return orphaned, injured or displaced orang-utans back to the wild. The centre helps the orphaned and confiscated orangutans by providing them with medical care and rehabilitation. The rehabilitation process starts as soon as the orang-utan is admitted to the centre where they undergo a comprehensive health assessment followed by a period of time in quarantine (to eliminate any diseases being spread).

Baby orangutans start off in the 'nursery' where they learn skills essential to jungle life like finding food, climbing and building nests. As they grow bigger they move to the 'outside nursery' before they become integrated with the wild population. Currently, there are around 25 young orphaned orang-utans in the nurseries in addition to the 60-80 that are free in the reserve.

A highlight of any visit is to be there at feeding time (currently 10.00am and 3.00pm). There is no guarantee that any of the orangutans will come in for a feed as they are encouraged to forage for their own food in the jungle. The additional food provided at feeding times is deliberately boring and monotonous but those recently rehabilitated will come down. Viewing is made easy by the eco-friendly boardwalks and viewing platforms.

Other wildlife species are also rescued and treated in the centre. Those include the sun bears, Sumatran Rhinos, gibbons and pygmy elephants. If you can drag yourself away from watching the orangutans there are also a variety of trails and walks within the reserve ranging from 250 metres to 5 kilometres. Since opening Sepilok has successfully released over one hundred orangutan into their natural forest habitat so is deemed to be a highly successful project.

For us it was simply an unforgettable experience to see these beautiful creatures being lovingly cared for as they strive to regain their independence.