The Young and The Restless | Orangutans have my heart

There wouldn’t be a need.

Travel for leisure is still not a necessity; it’s a luxury. That is not lost on me.

I am grateful for the time, will and funds to be able to do it.

Many questioned why I chose Borneo in particular for our most recent trip.

One of the main reasons was to see and support the plight of critically endangered orangutans.

These members of the great ape family are only found on the South-East Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and are the only great apes found outside Africa.

They share 97 per cent of their DNA with humans.

If you’ve ever stopped to watch their childlike antics at Melbourne Zoo, that fact is fairly unsurprising.

We had hoped to see some unexpectedly in the wild like the thousands of macaques that popped up all over the state of Sabah, and while others staying at the same resort as us did see a wild orangutan in the very resort itself, our viewings were limited to within the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

Owned and managed by the Sabah Wildlife Department, the centre sits inside a 43sq km area of the Sepilok-Kabili Forest Reserve that is patrolled by rangers to keep poachers out.

On the grounds are a clinic, treatment ward and nurseries where around 25 orphaned orangutans are cared for.

Like humans, baby orangutans are dependent on their mothers, staying with them for the first eight or so years of their lives.

If they’re separated before the young orangutan is two, chances are the infant will die.

After the orphans are raised and rehabilitated at the centre, they are released into the forest reserve surrounding it, where many live out their lives and others swing off through the treetops into the sunset, never to return.

Twice a day, each day, supplementary food is provided inside the reserve on a feeding platform, where visitors to the centre can view them dining at an unobtrusive distance.

It’s not guaranteed that any orangutans will show up (but you can bet your bottom-dollar plague proportions of macaques will be there).

Around 60 to 80 orangutans live independently in the rainforest reserve, so the ones who visit the platform are now considered wild.

Staff also said there were completely wild orangutans that visited occasionally and pointed out one who was there during our visit.

While it didn’t feel like the most authentic wild wildlife encounter, given we had walked along a boardwalk to a viewing platform, it was as close as we got.

It was emotionally stirring; a special experience.

It was, however, short-lived, with the humid tropical heat overwhelming my 17-year-old, who fainted for the first time in his life.

We had been asked not to carry water bottles or anything else into this environment, to avoid tempting unnecessary attention from the droves of cheeky macaques.

But also the apes themselves, after a tourist was reportedly stripped naked by a curious orangutan in 1992, landing him a not-so-desirable souvenir local newspaper front page.

It proved detrimental on a 34ºC day with 95 per cent humidity and I would not recommend doing so after arriving from a Victorian winter. Carry the water.

After my son recovered in an air-conditioned room where presentation videos are shown, we visited the representative on site who was helping tourists ‘adopt’ infant orangutans for a year.

After seeing these scruffy-haired and doe-eyed babes safe and learning, thriving in a centre that is protecting their habitat from destruction, keeping poachers away and sustaining their health and lives, we wanted to contribute more than just our entry fees and purchases at the gift shop.

We signed up to sponsor a redhead named Agop, who arrived at the centre in 2022, aged one.

She was found alone and afraid, weighing as much as a pineapple (1.5kg), by a farmer harvesting his crops, who called the centre to rescue the tiny orphan.

The representative from Orangutan Appeal UK told us about her bold escape attempt from the nursery the week before.

I am smart enough to know that several tourists are enlisted to ‘adopt’ the same orangutan and that Agop — named after the Agop Tulug caves near where she was found — is not ours alone.

The adoption fee is merely a donation to benefit all the little arboreal tree-dwellers there.

But how lovely it was to receive photo prints and an information pack about her in our letterbox a week after we got home, when the reality of everyday life had already made our magical encounter feel like a distant memory.

I could go on about orang (=man) (of the) utans (=forest), but I don’t have as much room on this page as I do in my heart for them.