Malaysia/Sabah: Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary
Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary is one of the best places in the world to see these primates. The center takes care of the many orphaned baby orangutans from the surrounding jungle and you can see them up close, witness the feeding, as well as playing and swinging on the surrounding trees and ropes. It costs almost 2000 dollars to rehabilitate one baby orangutan to release into the wild. At 10am there is a feeding when usually a dozen or so come out to eat bananas on a platform. There are ropes going in all directions from the platform and they literally come out swinging. Among the ones that came out were 5 mothers with babies in tow, rather unusual. Babies literally hang on to the mothers throughout the whole process. Baby orangutans are just beyond adorable – clumsy with funny looks and huge eyes, they spend first 2-3 years of their life basically hanging on to a mother orangutan who teaches them everything.
