[stuny]

Due to logging and replanting vast areas of Malaysian Borneo with palm oil plantations the wild Orangutans are disappearing. Consequently, we thought we’d have little opportunity to see any in the wilds, so when we visited we made sure that we included a stop at an orang rehabilitation center that rescues orphaned oranges and readies them for reintroduction into the shrinking rainforests. Little did we know that our fabulous guide Dennicius in the Danum Valley rainforest was a wild orang magnet, finding seven in all. Rainforests are really quite dark with very dense foliage, so that was no mean trick. After he located a mother and baby (and told some primate researchers from Japan) we were lucky that the baby crossed a liana nearly directly overhead, but still at quite a distance. Orangs are the world’s largest arboreal primates, and “orang utan” translates to man of the forest. There are many more orang shots on the Borneo photo gallery on our site.