The Jungle Book
26 October 2014 | Central Kalimantan
David and Andrea
The King Kong-like figure loomed large in our sights as we turned into the Sekonyer river. The impressive orang-utan sculpture is cast in an aggressive pose, giving the tourist a moments pause. Our sturdy craft chugged happily out of the turbulent Kumai into the more tranquil tributary heading northeast. The jungle encroached into the river beyond the shore, which itself was completely obscured. Soon, we spotted movement in the tall tree tops. Troupes of Proboscis monkeys leapt with abandon from tree to tree. The males had the very large and drooping nose, almost like the worst example of rhinophyma imaginable, whilst the females had the much more petite pencil like nose, reminiscent of Pinocchio or Mr Squiggle. The monkeys were seen every kilometre or so, suggesting a strong population. Standing motionless on a branch just above the river was an amazing Kingfisher, with its massive and very orange beak ready for the kill. We passed small local communities of houses built on rickety stilts, and even a resort, The Rimba Lodge. It had its own boat the Rimba Queen, bringing to mind images of Bogey and Hepburn in the African Queen. Hornbills wheeled overhead. The river continued its serpentine meanderings, and got narrower, and narrower. We reminisced about our childhood readings of Kipling's great grey green greasy Limpopo river. Of course, we were not alone as this river has a lot of glotok traffic ferrying tourists and in fact we spent quite a bit of time in conga lines of boats. Indeed when we arrived at the first feeding station we had to hop across about five other boats to get to the dock. This first station was in the form of a platform strewn with bananas and occupied by a solitary orang-utan, a young male known as Corporal. With his back turned to us in the gallery he was not much of a crowd pleaser but he did turn occasionally to give us facial profiles. The creatures have amazingly long arms such that they can put one arm over their shoulder and easily scratch their natal cleft.
We eventually left this spot and repaired to the boat for the onward journey to Camp Leakey. The river became only as wide as the boat with vegetation brushing the topsides frequently. Chicanes were formed by rafts of material forcing some fancy turns. The water changed from muddy brown to a deep black.
Camp Leakey has a strong history of wildlife preservation but today seems neglected, especially as it has been funded by the World Wildlife Foundation and by the Orangutan Foundation. There is an unlit hut with very dated information on its dark walls. To read this we resorted to a torch. Quite arduous and sad in many ways. The lifetime of work by the research staff was not well represented.
Approaching the feeding station our party was walking along an elevated boardwalk above a swamp, when we were brought to a rapid halt by an angry female orang-utan. She had been grabbing the punters and causing some havoc. Our guide was very familiar her. She ambled past us within touching distance and went straight for his nether regions. In fact, she went for his hip pocket in which he had a large bread roll, specifically placed to pacify her. Once the toll was paid we continued on our way but were of course delighted to have had such a close encounter.
At the feeding station we were held in thrall for several hours. Initially the platform was deserted, but soon a very naughty gibbon appeared. He had a rascally face and was straight out of Disney's animation of the Jungle Book. This creature looked sneakily around before racing up to the platform to raid the banana cache. He scooped up a hand of bananas and stuffed them in his mouth, had another lot in one paw and then shot up a tree to gobble his treasure, raining spent banana peels on the ground below. He was a fantastic lead-in act to the main event.
The first sign of the approaching orang-utans was movement in the tree tops. These primates can be up to 125kg and use their weight to bend entire trees so that the animal can move gracefully across the canopy. They sometimes hung motionless, spreadeagled between the vegetation, showing just how easy it was for them. The trees shook and the audience became very attentive. A male was first to the platform and did not mind looking us in the face. He used a finger/claw to peel the banana before eating it and then chucking the peel away. The gibbon would sometimes launch "stealth" missions to get more tucker. A female called Akmad appeared with a baby clinging to her fur. She had a scarred left eye and was in my opinion blind in that organ. She and her progeny feasted although the youngster looked quite fatigued. Another 6 year old orang-utan appeared and leapt about for our enjoyment. The time between pregnancies is about 5-7 years, the longest of any animal. The females only became fertile at 15 and lose this at 35, thus making the species exceedingly vulnerable. There is only one baby per pregnancy. The young are nursed till about 4-5 and still cared for until 7 or so. Adults and juveniles all liked drinking a milky substance that had been prepared for them in buckets. We saw about 6-8 animals in succession and obtained some good photos. The female finally stomped over to the audience in the bleachers so we had excellent close up viewing.
The show eventually came to an end and it was time for us to return back downriver. A syrupy sunset on the river ensued and the monkeys were still very active. Clouds of giant bats flew on their lines across our path. The night was clear and starry but the darkness of the jungle was total. Fantastic arrays of fireflies appeared on the nearby trees, looking like thousands of tiny LED lights. Some landed on us, like scenes in the Avatar movie. Spirit Aling ploughed on with its big spotlight piercing the inky blackness as each twisting turn came and went. Too soon the loom of Kumai desecrated the nighttime sky and we were once more cast into the industrial riverscape.
PS Our guide told us that orangutans have been used for human prostitution. Not entirely willing to believe such a story I checked on the web and found a credible reference confirming this information, on the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.