ORANGUTAN HABITAT

Orangutan habitat - The world's largest Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is located at Sepilok, Malaysia. It is an original orangutan habitat which is a 20-minute drive from Sandakan. More than 4,500 hectares of virgin jungle have been set aside here as a forest reserve and rehabilitation centre for orangutans which have been rescued from captivity or abandoned by their mothers from the original orangutan habitat.



Visitors can come in close contact with this remarkable "man of the forest" and photograph some of the mature females who have gotten so fond of human company that they refuse to go back to the wild orangutan habitat. There is also a platform to watch the orangutan come in from the forest for their rations of milk and bananas.

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre was established in 1964 to return orphaned apes back to the wild orangutan habitat. The centre was being administered by the wildlife section of the Forestry Department which in 1988 was upgraded as a department under the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development. All administration and management of this biggest orangutan habitat was given to the new Wildlife Department of Sabah.



The objectives of the project have expanded in recent years. While Orangutan rehabilita­tion is stilt the primary goal at Sepilok, present aims include public education on conservation, research and assistance to other endangered species such as captive breeding of the rare and endangered rhinoceros.

This centre is now under the supervision of more than 37 staff, including a Wildlife Officer who is also officer-in-charge of the centre, a veterinary doctor, wildlife rangers and general workers.

The centre has a reception centre, information centre, offices for wildlife staff, an animal clinic, quarantine area and enclosures for various animals such as the rhinoceros.

Sepilok, renowned for its orangutan rehabilitation project, has stimulated a greater local and international awareness of the protection laws for endangered species, and the Centre has resulted in an increase in detection and confiscation of illegally held captive animals.

The Sabah Orangutan Rehabilitation Project was originally proposed in 1961 by P.F. Burgess, then the Deputy Conservator of Forests. He was also responsible for the establishment of a game branch within the Forest Department and the drafting of the Fauna Conservation Ordinance, 1963.



Soon afterwards, Barbara Harrisson, wife of the Curator of Sarawak Museum, began to rescue young orangutans being kept locally as pets, and the idea grew of training these animals to fend for themselves so that they might re-adapt to live in their own orangutan habitat.