Wildlife Heaven – A Mesmerising & Joyous Visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, Sabah Borneo

At last! At last! At last!

Even though our tour of Sabah had almost come to an end, we had finally arrived at the destination that I was most excited about – the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

It was a steamy and overcast day with the gentlest of misting rain, but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm as we tumbled off the bus – cameras at the ready.

And we could see a small group of people excitedly pointing and looking at a building outside the Centre itself. We just had to see what that was all about.

Our visit to the Centre exceeded all my expectations. We hadn’t even set foot inside the Centre and here was Wulan and her three-month old baby sitting on the corner of an outbuilding. She was watching us and we were watching her.

I was spellbound.

Here was a wild animal that was so close to us, it was awe-inspiring. Close to us physically, but also close to us in evolution terms. You look into those eyes and you can see the intelligence, and know that there is only a minute gap between our gene pool and theirs.

Meanwhile, Wulan’s baby slept on. It looked like a ragdoll as Wulan simply flipped it onto her back or flopped it over her knee. That baby was not even aware we were there, let alone be interested.

The crowd numbers grew dramatically as opening time neared. We thought it would be wise to reserve our place in the queue to enter the Centre and eventually dragged ourselves away from Wulan’s mesmerising presence.

Then the stampede started! We had no idea what the plan was and simply followed the running and rushing crowds. A network of raised wooden boardwalks snaked through the jungle for around 300m (I am not exactly sure of the distance as I was too busy keeping up with the hoards) to reach the orangutan Nursery.

The Nursery is a large L-shaped building with tiered seating and floor-to-ceiling perspex windows. The windows look out onto a grassed ‘play area’ complete with ropes, posts and feeding platforms.

There were a few young orangutans waiting patiently, perched on top of a post or dangling from rope lines strung between branches. Even from behind the window you could feel the energy change as more junior orangutans materialised out of the jungle, appearing seemingly from nowhere. Yes, it was feeding time.

What followed was pure joy! A very boring, but important, keeper dumped a basket of fresh fruit and vegetables on various platforms, and the fun and games began.

They swung along the ropes to make a raid on the food, sneaking feet-, hand-, and mouthfuls of food before the larger, bossier orangutans could shoo them away. They pushed each other off the platforms or stole food from each other if they weren’t protective of their stash.

It was amazing to watch the ease with which they moved about. It was completely effortless and appeared to be unconscious as they didn’t even seem to look for the next hand or foothold. Apparently when the orphan babies are brought to the sanctuary, the human keepers must teach the babies how to climb and build strength in their arms. It is not something innate and is usually taught by the mothers.

Again, I just couldn’t stop taking photos. Just one more, oh, look at that one, just one more photo.  Unfortunately, the window was none too clean and it reduced the clarity of the photos, but it didn’t reduce the delight watching their acrobatics. I was wondering if the windows also acted as sound-proofing so the juniors are not exposed to our loud ooohs and aaaahhs. The keepers minimise any handling of the animals so that they do not get used to the comfort of human contact. I doubt I would make a good keeper as I simply couldn’t resist a cuddle.

After about 45minutes, the crowd started to get up and leave the building, and we took that as our cue to follow along once more. Back down the walkway we headed, but this time to the adult area.

The older orangutans congregate in a different part of the Centre and they are free to come and go. This time, we got to stand on an open deck where we were only separated from the animals by a short stretch of jungle. Although we were about 15-20m away from them, you could still see how they interacted with each other.

We were very lucky that day as we were only supposed to visit the Centre once in the morning. Our guide proposed that we squeeze in another visit in the afternoon and we leapt at the chance.

We knew the drill this time and led the charge to the Nursery. After a short visit with them, we raced to the adult area to get the best spots on the viewing platform. At the morning session, only one lone adult orangutan had materialised out of the jungle. This was actually a good thing as it meant that the orangutans were finding enough food of their own out in the natural bush.

The afternoon though was totally different. It was a happy parade of orangutans as about 15 of them swung and cavorted out of the jungle to sample the fresh fruit and vegetables. Corn on the cob was the big favorite and highly prized by those who could grab it first. They had extra competition though as hundreds of aggressive macaque monkeys fought and stole their unfair share. Even though we had marvelled at the macaques when we stayed at the jungle lodge on the Kinabatangan River, they were old news now.

Again, I was spellbound (I do that a lot, it seems) and could not tear myself away, even after 1.5hours of standing. As well as the animal acrobatics, I was delighted to watch a young orangutan making a nest for the night. Yes, they make a new bed or nest every night and it is quite the production as they select a small branch, break it, bend it, chew the end and place it ‘just so’ to maximise their comfort.

I also saw more animal sex than I really needed. So fair warning if you are travelling with the kiddies. There are bound to be some awkward questions.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to the orangutans as it was time for our group to move on to the next tourist attraction. Before leaving the Centre, we watched a short video about how the place works. It was interesting to see how they teach the young orangutans basic life skills, and yet, at the same time minimise handling and human contact as they don’t want the young orphans to assume that the animal handlers/carers are their mothers.

So, No, we couldn’t cuddle the orangutans, even though that would have been a dream come true for me.  Just watching and drinking them up with my eyes would have to be enough of a dream come true this time.

As our bus trundled away from the Sanctuary, my orangutan cup was full to overflowing. The definition of happiness.

When have you felt such complete joy?

The Basics

What: It costs around AUD$12 for International visitors to enter the Centre. There is also a AUD$4.00 fee for DSLR cameras. For cameras with lenses over 600mm, the camera fee jumps to around AUD$400. There is no souvenir shop or café at the Centre. What a business opportunity!

Where: W.D.T. 200, Sabah Wildlife Department, Jalan Sepilok, Sepilok, 90000 Sandakan, Sabah

When: The Centre opens at 845am. Feeding platform and outdoor nursery opening hours:
900am to 12pm (Fridays 9-11am) and 2-4pm. Tickets are valid for the whole day.

Why: Any reason is a good reason to visit orangutans.

How: I did not see any public transport servicing this destination, but apparently public buses do run a few times a day. Otherwise, you will need to arrange private transport of join a tour.

Who: Everyone of every age will be mesmerised by these animals. Other than the short video and a few signs, there was no guided tour or information shared, so you will just have to be happy to stand and watch.

Related Posts: For a different swinging, climbing, cavorting animal, check out my visit to the proboscis monkey sanctuary.

Related Blogs: If you would like to learn how you can help orangutans, you may like the suggestions in this blog from Orangutan Outreach.

Read About it: If the kids love orangutans, they may like Marge in Charge and the Missing Orangutan by Aussie actress Isla Fisher. Available from Fishpond.

We visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in early March 2023.

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