One of the top attractions of Central Kalimantan is viewing the orangutans in the wild with no fences. We took a small canoe from our Houseboat three times, along the river into the Orangutan Sanctuary operated by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS). Initially at Kaja Island, we were disappointed that we did not see any orangutans in the first 30 minutes. Then, as we turned the bend of the river, the people in the canoe in front of us kept pointing to the riverbed, where two large males were hanging onto the trees. We thought this might be all we would see, and spent about 15 minutes photographing these two, who barely moved a muscle. The guides told us to be patient as we rowed towards another feeding station, where more orangutans emerged from the forest whenever the rangers come with food. At times, the branches shook and suddenly, both monkeys and orangutans that were hiding in the shadows showed themselves.
On another day, we came across the large majestic male (middle)on Selak Bedak, another part of Orangutan Island. He had been placed on the other side of the river by himself, due to his overly aggressive behavior toward other orangutans. We saw him posed like a ballerina at one of the feeding stations. He had the face of a mischievous child.
Moving a little further down the river, we encountered one orangutan walking across the shallow water towards a ranger feeding station (center). We were told that orangutans could neither swim nor jump into the canoes, so we had our fingers crossed. We also saw one mother orangutan with her infant clinging to her side (lower left). In all, we encountered more than a dozen different orangutans on these canoe trips, and they were happy to mostly just watch us on the water, just as curious of us as we were of them.
The Borneo orangutan is an endangered species endemic to the island of Borneo. Orangutans eat, sleep and travel in the trees, spending the majority of their time searching and eating food. They have been named as the world’s most intelligent animal, placing them above the chimpanzee and gorilla. BOS is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the orangutans and its habitat by locals. After teaching survival skills, the orangutans are eventually released back into the wilds. Check out ways you can help orangutans survive here and here.
Several times a day, the rangers bring food to each feeding station until the orangutans learn the basic skills to survive while in “forest school”, such as nest building, climbing, tree-swaying, fruit eating, and predator avoidance. When trainers feel confident that the orangutan can fend for themselves, they are released back into the wild. About 80% of orangutan habitat has already been lost to make way for palm oil plantations. Photos of the rangers are shown above (top row). One of our canoe guides was the ranger’s mother (bottom right), who also gave us a cooking demonstration.