Searching for Orangutan in Borneo

Written on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 by David

We woke up at 5am to a day promising adventure and discovery in the jungles of Borneo.

After a quick breakfast we were whipped up the mighty Kinabatangan River, on our private boat with our own guide, eager to sight the birds and mammals of the jungle. As the day broke, we slowly cruised through the narrow waterways that fed into the river, spotting various bird types including colourful kingfisher, long legged herons and majestic hornbills.

The proboscis monkeys sat high in the branches, the male with his strangely long nose, overlooking his clan. The long tail macaque was more active, jumping between trees and squabbling over abundant food, while smaller pigtail macaques are shy & quiet, observing as we calmly passed by.

Alas no Orangutan; the mighty ape of the forest, was indeed very elusive.

We went back to our beautiful Sukau Rainforest Lodge, a National Geographic Unique Lodge located deep in the Borneo Forest.

Our guide met us for a morning walk and much to our surprise and delight, a mother Orangutan and her baby were feeding in the surrounds of our lodge. We managed to get some fantastic close-up views of the pair and as we looked up at them, they looked back at us thinking ‘what is all the fuss about?’.

They were very calm, not at all alarmed as they saw us as no threat. They are our distant cousins, as we share 97% of the same DNA.

It was an incredible moment.