While Sabah is well - known for its prominent attractions such as Mount Kinabalu and the Kinabalu National Park, Sabah is also popular for its verdant jungles, Sipadan coral reefs, interesting native population as well as the elusive
orang utan, which can be found at the Sepilok
Orang Utan Sanctuary.
You can climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in the region, visit the largest
orang utan sanctuary in the world, as well dive some of the world's best wall, reef and macro-life locations.
Here, you'll get up close and personal with
orang utan (wild man of Borneo) formerly in captivity which are now being rehabilitated before their return to the wild.
And it's not just been big stuff — our guides have been spotting Blue Dragon nudibranchs,
orang utan crabs and much more.
Orangutans (also spelled
orang utan, orang - utan, sometimes incorrectly orangutang) are two species of great apes with long arms and reddish, sometimes brown, hair.
These diseases would endanger the already - threatened wild population if
the orang utans were released back into their native forests of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Not exact matches
However, its popularity has driven a rapidly expanding industry that has been linked with deforestation, high carbon emissions, displacement of local communities and threats to endangered species such as the
orang -
utan, Sumatran tiger and sunbear.
ORANG -
UTANS normally steer clear of water.
ORANG -
UTANS may be perfectly adapted for swinging through trees, but new observations suggest they also spend a surprising amount of time hanging out on the ground.
But Pontzer's team thinks the irregularity of food availability in the
orang -
utans» habitat in south - east Asia has led the animals to evolve an especially thrifty metabolism.
They might swing in the canopy, but
orang -
utans expend fewer calories by mass than your average human couch potato.
But «one day we saw an adolescent
orang -
utan called Sif wade into deep water, hunker down and then lunge forward making simple paddling movements with her arms and legs», says Russon.
So it came as a surprise when a group of orphaned
orang -
utans that had been relocated to Kaja Island in Borneo started to get wet for all sorts of reasons.
With their long, strong arms and short bowed legs, it's easy to see why
orang -
utans are considered the most arboreal of all great apes.
She says orphaning may have made this particular group of
orang -
utans more independent, which in turn could have spurred their remarkable innovation.
But there are also lively accounts of people and places, politics and potentates, not to mention a poignant tale of life with an orphaned
orang -
utan, detailed instructions to his sister on choosing him a new assistant, and a letter thanking his mother for sending bacon («turned out more eatable than I expected»).
Chimps,
orang -
utans and gorillas recognise themselves in a mirror and so pass this test.
PEOPLE who work with
orang -
utans are regularly struck by their uncanny similarity to humans.
So it was quite surreal to find myself, last June, in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth concert hall in London, in a group of 700 people, discussing the cultural lives of
orang -
utans, meerkats and fish.
In the wild,
orang -
utans live and die in...
As Elaine Morgan points out on page 26,
orang -
utans are in many respects closer to us than chimps.
And the touching scene when Darwin meets Jenny the
orang -
utan — the first time he'd come face to face with a great ape — is beautifully executed, brilliantly capturing the humanity of our fellow apes.
With only around 27 000 wild apes left in scattered patches of forest on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the
orang -
utan is vulnerable to extinction.
Unlike chimpanzees and gorillas, domesticated
orang -
utans can be returned to the wild because they are solitary animals and do not face problems integrating back into a social group.
The programme featured an
orang -
utan called Hsiao Li, which was portrayed as an ideal companion.
A separate group of 30
orang -
utans have been sent from Taiwan to a rehabilitation centre at Wanariset in Indonesia.
HUNDREDS of pet
orang -
utans that are being discarded by wealthy Taiwanese families may be destroyed because they can not be returned to the wild.
According to Leiman, an estimated 1000 young
orang -
utans were illegally imported into Taiwan, and were sold mainly through newspaper advertisements.
• A touch of monkey business affected our article on technology for animals:
orang -
utans become sexually active at 8 years, and it is human visitors — not other apes — that juveniles enjoy poking with sticks (29 November, p 44).
However, no elephant fossils have yet been discovered in Borneo, even though fossils from other large mammals such as
orang -
utans have been found.
• A touch of monkey business affected our article on technology for animals:
orang -
utans become sexually active at 8 years,...
The Borneo rainforest is a particularly biodiverse region, and is most famously home to the only Asian great ape, the
orang -
utan.
The few apes left hang on in increasingly restricted habitats (
orang -
utans in Asia, gorillas in Africa) and are stuck with odd specialisations (knuckle walking, large brains).
«Bark represents a considerable fraction of
orang -
utan diets,» says Madeleine Hardus of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
He thinks it might be easier in
orang -
utans, which have a more fine - grained distribution.
Among the primates, cryptochrome 1 is found in the
orang -
utan, for example.
That's why some of the entrants in recent humanoid robot Grand Challenges have looked less human and more like a cross between an
orang -
utan and a wolf spider.
According to the World Resources Institute, the fires have spread into national parks, including Tanjung Puting National Park, which includes some of the last remaining habitats for
orang -
utans, Sumatran elephants and clouded leopards.
Group leader Brett Kennedy describes RoboSimian as a cross between an
orang -
utan and a wolf spider — far less humanoid than Atlas.
Elaine Morgan reminds us that
orang -
utans are phenotypically more similar to humans than other apes, even though chimpanzees are genetically...
There is a growing record of tool use in animals and birds, from musical «instruments» made by
orang -
utans to sponges used by dolphins to dislodge prey from sand.
Researchers used to think that taking to two legs caused the size of human brains to outstrip our primate cousins the
orang -
utans, gorillas and chimpanzees.
«Chimps and
orang -
utans, they don't feel the need for that, but once you have cooperative breeding, the evolution of language is just expected,» he says.
«Even other primates laugh, if you tickle a gorilla or
orang -
utan,» she says.
The gibbons, known as small apes are genetically farther from humans than the great apes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and
orang -
utans.
By using genetic analysis to assess a subset of historical reintroductions into Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia, they found that
orang -
utans from a non-native and genetically distinct subspecies were unwittingly released and have since hybridized with the Park's wild population.
Advances in morphological and genetic studies have since revealed two species of
orang -
utan, however, on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
While their findings and recommendations apply to a broad range of endangered mammals, Banes is especially adamant that Bornean
orang -
utan subspecies be kept apart.
As
orang -
utan subspecies are thought to have diverged around 176,000 years ago, with marked differentiation over the last 80,000 years, the researchers highlight the potential for negative effects on the viability of populations already under threat.
The Bornean
orang -
utan is further subdivided into three distinct, geographically and reproductively isolated subspecies, which last shared a common ancestor in the Pleistocene and have differentiated substantially over tens of thousands of years.