We spent 3 days with these wonderful creatures at Camp Leakey and we were completely blown away by being so close to such fascinating animals in the wild.

This camp was initially set up as a base to research orang-utan behaviour, but it now also operates as a rescue, rehabilitation and release centre for babies and juveniles orphaned or stolen by poachers. (Or both - even a female orang-utan is four times as strong as a man, so the poachers have to kill the mothers to get the babies.)

The orang-utans here are a mix of released animals and 'wild' ones, although they all come and go as they please - at any time a number of them are wandering around the huts, and several turn up for a daily feeding time if there is not enough food for them in the wild.

We were asked not to touch them (you can easily transmit human diseases to them, especially the babies) and we certainly stood aside promptly when a large male decided to walk in our direction, but they were quite content to let us stand very close and watch them - it was obvious that they were just as curious about us as we were about them.

A female orang-utan breeds only once in 8 years which is the time it takes for the juvenile to be able to look after itself - after this time a new baby is produced and the juvenile has to be 'encouraged' to leave home. (Remind you of anything?) This protracted period makes the orang-utan population very precarious.

It is hard to describe how graceful, powerful and engaging they are. They move through the canopy arm over arm, either using branches or vines, or by climbing high up a thin tree, holding on with one arm and one foot, and then leaning out so that the tree bends towards the next one on their route.

We spent time with mothers with babies, mothers with juveniles and young males. We were lucky enough to see the alpha males of three separate groups (at three different sites) - these are awesome 100kg animals who are very obviously used to getting their own way!

We watched a female trying to break into the banana shed by the simple expedient of tearing planks out of the walls, all the time ignoring us but peering round the corner at the wardens to make sure they weren't watching. When she was caught and chased off she threw a real paddy!

We came across a female with a mature juvenile who was apparently ready to mate and did not appreciate the human audience. She shouted at us from the top of a tall tree and broke off large branches and hurled them down at us.

And when the torrential jungle rains came, we saw them make umbrellas out of leaves and sit glumly under them waiting for the downpour to pass!

See the gallery for more pics!