Sepilok
One Of The First Orangutan Rehabilitation Centres In The World, Founded 1964, Alongside The Only Sun Bear Conservation Centre Anywhere · Sandakan, Sabah
SEPILOK HAS BEEN TAKING IN ORPHANED AND DISPLACED ORANGUTANS SINCE 1964 AND RETURNING THEM TO FOREST, which makes it one of the first programmes of its kind anywhere and one of the very few that has run long enough to know whether it works. TWICE A DAY THERE IS A FEEDING AT A PLATFORM IN THE FOREST, and here is the thing the brochures will not tell you: A GOOD DAY IS ONE WHERE FEW ORANGUTANS TURN UP, BECAUSE IT MEANS THEY ARE FINDING THEIR OWN FOOD. Nothing is guaranteed and that is the point of the place. NEXT DOOR IS THE BORNEAN SUN BEAR CONSERVATION CENTRE - THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD - holding the smallest bear alive, an animal almost nobody ever sees in the wild. AND THE RAINFOREST DISCOVERY CENTRE, with a canopy walkway and some of the best accessible birding in Borneo. All three are within walking distance of each other. Leave your bag in a locker because the macaques are organised, keep your distance from every animal, and understand that nothing at a feeding is ever guaranteed.
Sepilok, Sandakan, Sabah, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
SEPILOK IS ABOUT TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES BY ROAD FROM SANDAKAN, which has an airport. THE ORANGUTAN CENTRE HAS TWO FEEDING TIMES A DAY, MID-MORNING AND MID-AFTERNOON, and the site opens around them; A CAMERA FEE APPLIES ON TOP OF ADMISSION. THE SUN BEAR CENTRE AND THE RAINFOREST DISCOVERY CENTRE ARE SEPARATE TICKETS within walking distance - do all three. BAGS AND FOOD ARE NOT ALLOWED past the entrance at the orangutan centre and LOCKERS ARE PROVIDED, because the macaques are organised and will take anything. DO NOT TOUCH OR APPROACH AN ORANGUTAN: disease transmission between humans and great apes runs both ways and this rule is absolute. NOTHING IS GUARANTEED AT ANY FEEDING. It rains in every month; the boardwalks get slippery.