The rehabilitation centre for orangutans!

When we visited sepilok which was a small town that had many jungle acctractions to explore! We stayed in the hut like space that had one big room that had two bunkbeds and one king bed, it also had our living space. There was a sperate room for the bathroom which had a shower, sink and toilet. Our accommodation gave us breakfast every morning but we had to buy lunch and dinner from them at the resteront style eating area that we had.

While we were there we went to a jungle center were there was a sky walk that we could go on, it had many different look out towers that we could climb up too! We also visited the sun bears and orangutans, the orangutans were at a rehabilitation center which means that they wear the kept in a cage like a zoo, they were looked after and taught the survival skills that they would need in the wild. Then the orangutans get taken out into the wilderness when they are ready.

We didn't even know if we would see any orangutans since they get to choose weather they come to the look out or not. We went to the center at feeding time, which is where one of the workers there will come out onto a platform in the middle of the area that was visible from the look out platform and would put food out for the orangutans to eat. The orangutans dont have to come and eat the food, but it's actually good if they don't!

The rihibilation center is mostly jungle and when the orangutans get let out into the jungle we dont know if they will come back! They can always come to the feeding spot but if they dont it means that they have been getting there own food and don't need human help anymore! The food that gets fed to the orangutans is always the same too so that they get bored of it and try to find something themselves!

We did get to see some orangutans there though, because some still came to get food, we saw and mother with her baby and a male by himself. The mother got some food and left but the male stayed around for ages trying to find the best food in the basket. There were another type of monkey that we saw there too, the rehabilitation center doesn't formally look after them but they live in the jungle too so they usually come around looking for food at the feeding time too!

They are called macaques and are very funny monkeys! They have big personalities and it is very funny watching them fight over the food. The male orangutan was getting rather annoyed by th macaques because they were trying to steal his food! So sometimes the orangutans would get quite rough with them and would push them off the platform!

It was so much fun to visit and see the orangutans and it makes me feels so sad that they are so close to extinction and all because humans and chopping down their jungle to create palm trees! The rehabilitation center is doing such a good job looking after these orangutans and making sure that the are well fed and are healthy!

I hope that next time you buy a product you check the ingredients (https://cdn.aucklandunlimited.com/zoo/assets/media/palm-oil-wallet-card.pdf) and think, because if it does have palm oil then humans cut down the jungle for that to be made. How many orangutans and other animals had to die so that you could could have that product?