Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary

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

There are only two places left on earth you can see orangutans in the wild and one of them is Borneo. One special place in Sandakan, in the northern Sabah province of Malaysia, is helping protect these incredible animals - the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Orangs are seriously threatened in Borneo, due to clear cutting and and habitat loss from palm plantations, and many mothers are killed in the process. The Sepilok centre takes in orphaned babies and trains them to live in the wild on their own. While visitors aren’t permitted inside the rehabilitation centre, as we can easily spread diseases to the babies, we can visit the feeding platforms, twice a day, where recently released orangs can come in from the jungle to feed. The words Orang Utan mean ‘Man of the Forest’ in Malay and watching their human-like facial expressions, you can see why. This special encounter with wild orangutans is unlike any other animal encounter I’ve had. Read More at: http://cheeseweb.eu/2013/05/visiting-sepilok-orang-utan-rehabilitation-centre-sandakan-sabah-malaysia/ I visited Sepilok as part of a full-day tour from Kota Kinabalu, with Borneo Eco-Tours. The Orang Utan Encounter costs 200 MYR pp (about 50 Euro). This includes airport transfers in KK and Sandakan, lunch and admission to the Rehabilitation Centre. Flights from KK to Sandakan are extra and were roughly 40 Euro with Malaysian Airlines.

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Spend the day with Borneo's 'Man of the Forest'

There are only two places left on earth you can see orangutans in the wild and one of them is Borneo. One special place in Sandakan, in the northern Sabah province of Malaysia, is helping protect these incredible animals - the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Orangs are seriously threatened in Borneo, due to clear cutting and and habitat loss from palm plantations, and many mothers are killed in the process. The Sepilok centre takes in orphaned babies and trains them to live in the wild on their own. While visitors aren’t permitted inside the rehabilitation centre, as we can easily spread diseases to the babies, we can visit the feeding platforms, twice a day, where recently released orangs can come in from the jungle to feed. The words Orang Utan mean ‘Man of the Forest’ in Malay and watching their human-like facial expressions, you can see why. This special encounter with wild orangutans is unlike any other animal encounter I’ve had. Read More at: http://cheeseweb.eu/2013/05/visiting-sepilok-orang-utan-rehabilitation-centre-sandakan-sabah-malaysia/ I visited Sepilok as part of a full-day tour from Kota Kinabalu, with Borneo Eco-Tours. The Orang Utan Encounter costs 200 MYR pp (about 50 Euro). This includes airport transfers in KK and Sandakan, lunch and admission to the Rehabilitation Centre. Flights from KK to Sandakan are extra and were roughly 40 Euro with Malaysian Airlines.

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