Monkey Business: Proboscis Monkeys and an Orangutan

C’mon, you have to chuckle when you see a Proboscis monkey (pictured above).  The guy has a phallic nose, a pot belly, and seems to always be “ready for some action,” if you know what I mean.  Proboscis monkeys are found only in Borneo and are an endangered species because the jungle is being chopped down to plant palm trees for palm oil.  It’s quite a sad sight to see miles and miles of palm plantations, but the country is hungry for development and palm oil is lucrative.

When we saw photos of the Proboscis monkeys (above is a mama Proboscis with her child), we knew we had to go seem them – and boy were we glad we did.   We visited the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary (in Sepilok, near Sandakan, $60RM per person or $20USD) which is private land bought up to preserve the rainforest and the native habitat for the monkeys.
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While the monkeys are wild, the park rangers have scheduled feeding times where they bring out sugar-free pancakes (they don’t like sugar) and what looked liked watermelon rinds to feed the various families of monkeys.

When we first arrived, the park rangers started ‘calling’ the monkeys and it sounded like the “uh oh” sound from ICQ, the old school instant messaging software (listen to the video below).

Slowly, we started to hear rustling in the trees and eventually saw multiple families of monkeys swing from the tree limbs to gather for the family breakfast.   But, only one monkey came forth – Jonathan, the head of family for one of the families was the only one that would come close to humans – within arm’s reach!  But don’t let their size fool you – these are some powerful creatures.

Here’s a family of bachelors getting fed.  Each “family” has one male and many females.  So all of the males that don’t have a harem hang out together until they can get strong enough to beat an alpha male in a fight for control of his family.

Now check out this video Lisa took of the feeding… then watch out for the macaques that take over.

Macaques, while small and cuddly looking, can be aggressive and nasty.  We’ve been advised to avoid getting too close or interactive.

After the feeding, we moved on to another platform to check out some wildlife – here’s a hawk that was being rehab’d at the reserve.

And there are hornbills in the reserve as well, but they are quite shy.  This one was far far away.

Here’s Ki Ki, a baby hornbill that fell from the tree and is being rehabilitated.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center

In the afternoon, we went to the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center to check out young orphaned/injured orangutans being rehab’d for life back in the wild.   Orangutans are an endangered species and only found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra (Indonesia).

As a note to future travelers, the morning feeding at this place is supposed to be super crowded with tourists, so the afternoon is the time to go.  But unfortunately for us, only a young female showed up.   It was still fun to see this one showboat for tourists taking photos.   If you want to take it a step further, you can go stay in the jungle along the Kinabatangan river and see these guys in the wild, National Geographic-style.

Did you know?  Orang means “man” in Malay, and (h)utan means “forest”, hence orangutan means “man of the forest”.

Got milk?  Here she’s got a coconut milk mustache.

Action shot!

There are many more photos and videos to be seen – check it out in the slideshow below:

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