Visiting Orangutans in Borneo
It was feeding time and we were waiting patiently. Every time a gust of wind caught a branch we would direct our attention and focus our eye. We were visiting Orangutans in Borneo in the jungles just outside Kuching. In the distance the trees started rustling just a little more, people started to point and that’s when I spotted it. Swinging lazily, hanging around for a moment then moving to another branch. It was a female and this girl knew how to put on a show, she wasn’t simply swinging towards the Bananas that had been put out for her, she was performing – almost dancing.
She hung upside down, using hands as feet and feet as hands, it really didn’t matter to her all limbs seemed interchangeable. I would be lying if I told you I knew anything about these endangered creatures, everything I saw was new to me. We saw about 6 orangutans in total, each with all their own distinct features and acting a little different. Some were lazy, seemed jaded and didn’t want to move, others could not sit still. We were told these creatures were semi wild, no fences and free to roam the jungle as they please but lived within the protected land and were fed twice a day by workers.
We did not get many great pictures, we had to use an old camera but we got a few nice shots of the Orangutans hanging around.
the mother and baby orangutans was a very cute picture. Thats soo cool you got to see them. We have a Zoo here that has a White Tiger (blind I think) and its a pretty awesome sight!
I wish I could be this flexible physically!
Great photos. I like to see animals freely wandering the jungles. Seeing them free naturally is a joy. Recently during my visit to GIR LION SANCTUARY, the lioness and her cubs were playing just like our human babies play with the mother.
Very nice photos! They are definitely much better than the ones I took while we were at the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center’s forest reserve for the morning feeding back in 2007, though I only had a 5 MP digital camera with a 3x zoom, which is not the thing to take when viewing wildlife about 40 yards away at a jungle feeding platform. We were lucky enough to be able to see Ritchie, the reserve’s big Alpha Male, rather close-up as we were about to leave the center; he came in out of the jungle to the small feeding station which is near the center’s headquarters building and visitors center (perhaps 25 yards beyond the safety rope we had to stay behind), and after the feeding passed about 10 feet over our heads as her hand-walked along the steel cable back to the trees. You’ve inspired me to add an entry about Semenggoh to my recently-started travel blog on SE Asia. Thanks for posting, and cheers!