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| Young urangutan in the wild |
Early on the second day in Bukit Lawang, my guide and I started up the "hill" to look for wild Orangutans. A day with the promise of ticking off another item on my bucket list - seeing wild Orangutans. However, I was looking for wild orangutans in their natural environment. Looking for wild animals is not always easy. It took me three trips to see my first wild tiger, so there is no guarantee that the wild animal will be seen. Sometimes not always easy to find. The trek up the mountain was not easy. The heat also did not help much. Pretty soon my shirt was wet with perspiration.
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| My first wild orangutan |
Before we reached the entrenched to the reserve, at a small guest house, there she was! My wild orangutan. Tick! One more off the bucket list! It is, however not just about getting ticks on the bucket list. It is about the experience of seeing these amazing animals in their natural environment. Have a wish list is not just about ticking them off. It is about the experience doing it. Also, by me standing looking at this beautify animal, I am, in a small way, contributing to eco- tourism and hopefully helping to preserve their habitats.
The trail was busy, with lots of tourists looking for orangutans. A really good sign for their future of this reserve and the animals which call it home.
Orangutans are not the only apes in the jungle. Soon after entering the reserve, we came upon a troop of Thomas leaf monkeys. Beautiful looking little fellows. Really great hair do! They were not too worried about the people looking at them and came quite close. There were also Macaques (long tailed Macaques) which were quite common in the forest. They would move along the path basically among the people. On the way out, there was a pig tailed Macaques, which is quite a bit bigger then the long tailed Macaque. Apparently this is quite an aggressive monkey and judging by the wide berth which the guides gave this pig tailed macaque, their reputation appeared to be justified. Another interesting ape species which can be seen in the forest are the Gibbons.These long armed, long legged apes move gracefully through the tree tops. Normally not very easy to see. I did also manage to see and get a few photos (not good enough to show you) on Gibbons on this trip. These are amazing animals and they just get a mention in this post!
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| Macaque monekeys |
The star of this trip was, however the orangutans. They were, after all the main reason that I was there. Unlike the difficulty I had to see my wild tiger (will post about this later), finding wild orangutans proved to be much easier. I must admit - I lost count of the number of sightings in the day. It was in the region of nine or 10 different sighting. There were a few highlights! The first highlight was, of course the first sighting. Then there was also the youngster! A mother with a young one. The youngster was big enough to move around freely by his (or her) self, with the mother resting high up in the trees. Let the tourists keep an eye on the youngster while mom has a well deserved rest! What an entertaining little fellow! The youngster and one of the young Macaque found themselves on the same vine. It was really interesting to see the two different species checking each other out. A close encounter on a vine.
I am running out of space on this post, so I guess there will have to be another orangutan post.
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