Kuching Part 5 - Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

Apologies for the long gap in between posts - a mix of work, holidays, computer trouble and being distracted took its toll and even when I had some time, the mind wasn’t much interested in writing.

Anyway, here we are again, taking off from the last post when we’d gotten back to the car, were leaving Kuching headed for the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre.

This place certainly proved to be a spectacle. A popular destination, we parked the car at the designated car park and walked in to the main meeting area where we found a large group of school kids and a smattering of adults. We waited around for awhile and had a quick peek at a number of crocodiles in concrete enclosures, then a Ranger came out, gathered the kids in a group and began talking to them in Malay. Turns out he was giving a briefing and the tourists there (including us of course) hung on at the fringe of the group. We needn’t have feared for he later spoke to us all in English and explained that we may not get to see any orangutans and so on. Managing expectations as it were.

The crocs here were big, but quite inactive.

He told us it was now a pretty abundant season - there were many fruiting plants and the orang-utan thus has less of a reason to visit the centre. When food was scarcer in the jungle, the supply that the rangers put out were very welcome, but this was less so now.

Still, after some waiting around, it turned out we would see some action after all and at the ranger’s instruction, we all hurried off to the feeding station near the carpark.

And what action! We didn’t just see one or two, but a pair of younger orangutans, a mother and child and the star of the show, Ritchie the alpha male. The younger and smaller pair came swinging along ropes laid out high above the ground. The descended in turn onto the wooden platform and helped themselves to fruit and coconuts laid out on the deck, or thrown up at them by the rangers.

And they came swinging through the jungle...

That's an orangutan nest up there. They sleep there at night.

Yummmmm.....

Their gymnastic abilities are quite a sight to behold.

Then the crowd began getting excited at something else, and I spied a mother and her young one ambling along on the ground. They came up to about 30 metres from us and stopped at a construction site where some workmen had been busy a few minutes before. The workers had been told the apes were coming so had quickly packed up their gear and moved away. It turns out they’d left a small bag of tools, nuts and bolts and the two primates found this and spent some time playing with a hammer and some long bolts.

It was fascinating watching them play with tools. The mother seemed to know how to hold and use a hammer and I half-expected her to hold a bolt in one hand and drive it into the wood with the hammer in the other. She didn’t quote get there though we chuckled at her antics. The ranger who’d briefed us eventually distracted her with a newspaper which she perused with intent - enough for the ranger to quickly grab the bag of tools and take it away.

Then quite suddenly our attention was drawn to some calls and shouts from further back. One of the younger orangutan rapidly climbed up and disappeared into the trees. The other moved off to a discreet distance as a huge lumbering shape made its way into the open. Ritchie, all 150 kgs of him, propelled himself along the ground - knuckles before feet - with a palpable sense of power and might. He occasionally paused to cast a sweeping almost disdainful glance across his kingdom and the 50 or 60 weak fair-skinned and relatively hairless bipeds who looked on in awe.

He moved with astonishing grace - astonishing because our minds had trouble wrapping themselves around the idea that something built like an army tank could move with panache and such fluidity - right up to the platform then amazingly climbed up the rope. He seemed to defy the laws of physics - not just by being his size, but by so effortlessly and adroitly casting himself up the thick rope.

Ritchie is huge and it's astonishing how agile he is.

Once on the platform, he was King. A bottle of milk was dispensed with in the manner a thirsty miner would down a pint of ale in an English pub. A dribble of milk went down his chin, and he went about his business polishing off fruit and coconuts. One of the pair of males came back and joined Ritchie. For some reason this fella was allowed to do so. He and Ritchie seemed to get along quite well. The ranger said the other male was not as close and would never have been allowed to share a platform with Ritchie.

We spent quite a long time watching all this, and the show didn’t stop even after feeding time - as we sat at the little drinks stall later, along came the mother and child, followed closely by a couple of rangers who made sure no one disturbed them. They patiently followed this pair as they made their way to and then through the car park and back into the jungle.

We got into our car and drove back to The Kebun, happy we’d seen so much today.

Find out more about Semenggoh Wildlife Centre here.