Sepilok - Borneo Sun Bears and Orang Utans

We got lucky with a chance to switch from Sandakan to stay in the Sepilok Jungle Resort close to the sun bear and orang utan action in Sepilok. The lodge is certainly jungly with lovely walkways, a lake and a huge swimming pool.







The gardens are adorned with dainty exotic flowers: wild ginger, frangipani, heliconia and much more.

Threaded into the eaves of one of the lakeside pavilions we found a beautiful red and black spider. Robert used a thin twig to tweak the bottom of the web with rapid jerks like a nervous prey insect. In seconds, the spider had abseiled down, ready for action and Gen's waiting macro ringflash. Finding nothing tasty, and suspecting foul play, it suddenly revealed a special hoist thread which it grabbed, cast away, and scaled back to the top, all in one lightning movement.



Our night sorties also revealed a prowling huntsman-like spider on a tree trunk; and a fine stick insect





Rain most of the day, but we went to the orang utan rehab centre.

We saw the nursery where youngsters tumbled and tussled in hammocks and practised swinging from ropes instead of lianas.

A first visit to the feeding platform didn't produce any orang utans, but lots of long-tailed macaques doing crazy antics to get the fruit placed on the platform. It is impressive to walk through beautiful rainforest, a complete contrast to the denuded tracts of oil palm monoculture.

We have arrived when the trees are fruiting in the forests and the orang utans don't feel like snacking at the feeding platform. This is good news for the rehabilitaters because this means the orang utans are becoming wild again, however the visitors make multiple visits with only the nursery antics to view through glass walls. On our second visit, we were just leaving feeling dejected with no sighting, when a young male orang utan appeared above our heads across the path and made feisty advances towards us. The guides readied their sticks as a deterrent, and urged us to move along... not before we took a few pics of a cheeky face blowing raspberries and peering upside down through the lianas at us.

Opposite the orang utan centre is the Borneo Sun Bear Rehabilitation Centre, beautifully and thoughtfully laid out for visitors and these creatures who are trafficked for pet and wildlife trade that is so stupidly harmful and unnecessary. Palm oil plantations have reduced huge tracts of rainforest to monoculture incapable of sustaining local wildlife, such as orang utans and sun bears.



We move along aerial walkways spotting bears down below napping, investigating fruits and tree crevices with their long tongues, or doing what they do best, scampering up to the tops of trees.