Malaysian Borneo

These are pictures from our time in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei all have territory on Borneo, and there are two Malaysian states, Sarawak and Sabah. We went to a national park run by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation called Matang. Matang is primarily an orangutan rehabilitation center, but it also houses a number of other animals that have no where to go, including sun bears, crocodiles, bearcats, deer, and macque monkeys, to name a few. 

Here's a typical day: Breakfast at 7:30. Work from 8:30-12:30, Lunch at 1. Class from 3-5, Dinner  at 6. After dinner, free time and homework. There were a few different projects that we rotated through in groups for work.
     Wood - carrying ironwood 2x4s and 4x4s through the jungle to build a ranger station about 4km into the park. Each group would move the whole group of planks a little way, the next group would move them a little more, and so on. Ironwood is the densest wood in the world, so carrying the planks was very tiring.
     Construction - we made cement to fix a porcupine pen that the porcupines were trying to burrow out of.
      Maintinence - general odd jobs, from hauling gravel to clearing brush and fixing walkways. I was in the group that cleared brush with machetes, which was quite satisfying.
     Husbandry - we fed animals and cleaned their pens. Mostly, this was for sun bears and orangutans.

 The class we were taking with the University was a Biodiversity class. It was something that could only be taught through service learning, I think, because every day we were seeing biodiversity all around us. A lot of Bornean (and world) biodiversity is in insect life, and they fed on our blood frequently.

One of the directors of the park, Leo Biddle, gives us a tour of the Rainforest

Leo, here giving us a little lecture on rainforest trees, is one of the main directors for Matang. He would frequently guest lecture in class on biodiversity, rehabilitation, and conservation. He is a world-class expert on orangs and rehabilitation techniques (I think). I consider myself very grateful for having met him.

Sanding and varnishing planks in preparation for carrying

Carrying the planks - taking a breather

Preparing for Maintenance duty

One of the park orangutans, Ganti and her baby, who visited us while we worked one day

The closest I will ever be to a (semi)wild orangutan

Here, we were doing maintenance next to one of the feeding platforms, and were lucky enough to be visited by Ganti and her son. It was an amazing experience; I was all but 15 feet from a semi-wild orangutan. Ganti has spent time in rehabilitation, but she has been "soft released" into the park. This is different form a "hard release" because she is not in the actual rainforest. She has been released this way because existing wild orangutan populations, though extremely small, are taxing the existing forest's ability to provide for them. There is not enough forest for all the orangutans. So Ganti stays in the park.

Staring at the little fella, and having him stare right back with (almost) human eyes was surreal. It was like looking into a distorted reflection of what might have been, had humans taken a different evolutionary route. Orangutans are like our long-lost cousins.

That being said, our group was pretty scared during this whole encounter. Orangutans, despite being generally docile, are incredibly strong. A play slap from a adult female like Ganti can break ribs and send someone tumbling head over heals. An orangutan's main weapons, however, are their teeth. They are one of two animals in the entire world that can break open a coconut by biting. I watched Ganti do this while she ate, fully aware that it could be my skull.  Although they are not mean or ill-tempered, orangutans can still hurt humans without meaning to. Except when their young are threatened. A couple years ago, a tourist tried to take a baby off of his mother, while she was carrying the baby and eating. This was the wrong move. The momma bit off the tourist's thigh muscle (!!!), and now she has to walk with a cane.Don't have pity for her though - it was her own damn fault.

A baby in climbing school

Do not touch! This little guy is an orphan who was sold or kept as a pet. His moma was probably killed trying to protect him. As such, he hasn't learned basic climbing skills, or how to move through the forest properly. At Matang, there is a program to help such orphans learn to climb. A graduate should be able to move through the trees just like all the other orangutans.

Om, a feisty new addition to the Matang family who is staying in quarantine for the time being

Peter, an adult male who is undergoing the transformation to dominant male. He is starting to develop cheekpads and bulk weight

There are several adult and juvenile females at Matang, but there are also adult males. Two of them are dominant males, which means they have undergone a transformation where their cheeks expand outward, they develop big pouches, and they put on a lot of bulk weight. The cheek pads and the throat pouch are to help produce the longcall, the famous shout of the male orangutan. I did not get to hear a longcall during my time however.

Aman, a fully dominant male. He is, as you can see, extremely photogenic.

This is Aman. He is the first orangutan to successfully undergo sight-restoring surgery. Until 2008 (I think), he was totally blind from chewing on a power cable. Since the surgery, he has made a full recovery. Aman's cheekpads are much larger than normal, and he weighs about 130 kilos. A normal dominant male will weight about 90-110 kilos on average, so Aman is very big. Some would even call him "hyper dominant". Basically, he developed beyond a normal dominant male while he was blind. Regardless of how, he is extremely big and strong. Strong enough to easily rip a human being limb from limb.

Aman peeping out from his interior enclosure. He likes to control when people get to take photos of him.

Being "hyper dominant," Aman does not take well to captivity. He is constantly seeking ways to control his environment in any way he can. He will hide in his sleeping enclosure, only allowing people to take pictures of him at his leisure. He has broken off some of the bars on his cage, allowing him to reach through and grab inattentive teachers. If Aman grabs you, there is nothing anyone can do to get him off you. He also hates men. When I was on orangutan cleaning detail, I had a long staredown with him while he sized me up. It was like looking into the eyes of a corporate tycoon or a mafia don - someone very powerful and knows that they are powerful. After about a minute, he decided that I was insignificant and turned away, clearly done with me. He was sizing me up exactly like a person would. It was an eerie experience.

A Sun Bear,, one of the other animals we cleaned up after

At one point, we went on a field trip to a Dayak longhouse. The Dayaks are the indigenous people of borneo, and this particular tribe had opened up their longhouse to generate income from tourism.

A bridge near a Dayak longhouse. Dayaks are the native people of Borneo.

A crazy jungle plant

One weekend we visited a national park called Bako. We had to take a boat ride from the river to the sea, and then around the coast for a little ways. The park is home to a number of beautiful hiking trails and amazing geography.

A boar roaming free in Bako National Park

A secret pirate cove (?) on the beach

Eroded rock, or solidified wave?

Jungle

A small scorpion hanging out on a palm tree. In other news, some species of palm trees have 3-inch spines all over them

Thinking about Nature

All of us at Matang with some staff.

So that's Malaysian Borneo! if anyone is interested in hearing or seeing more about our time there, contact me and I'll hunt down some more pictures. Next up is Vietnam.