Orangutans
Wow. I saw orangutans in the wild. Not in a cage or in some zoo. Not a tame pet. A wild animal free to roam wherever it wants to. Semenggoh is a 650 hectare tract of jungle. 24 orangutans live there.
One family of orangutans needs 500 hectares of space to get enough food to survive. Therefore, the wardens have to offer food twice a day so that these animals will not starve. They come to the feeding station if they want. Sometimes they all come, sometimes none do.
I went on Sunday afternoon. Two teenage orangutans turned up. I wish I was there earlier that day. Some of the tourists were too noisy and some had cameras on a tripod, two things that can annoy an orangutan. They hate tripods because they look like a blowpipe that the native tribes use to hunt orangutans with. Ritchie, the largest orangutan, got angry and rushed at the crowd shaking the handrails and urinating at the people. Everyone had to rush to safety. It might have been scary but I think it would have been exciting to see.
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I asked Room 20 earlier what animal is in bigger danger of extinction, the kiwi or the orangutan. We haven’t yet made any conclusions. Here are some facts to consider.
- Orangutans need a huge space to live in.
- They never have more than one baby at a time.
- Mothers only have a baby every five years.
- They are being poached and sold on the black market because some people believe they have medicinal benefits.
- Mother orangutans get shot by poachers so that the baby can be caught and sold as a pet.
