The Orangutans! - by Louis

We all went to an orangutan place in a minibus. It was called Sepilok. When we got there the first thing we did was put our bags in a locker so that the orangutans don’t take anything, unscrew the lid and drink what is inside. They don’t know the difference between water, mosquito repellant and suncream lotion! 

Lovely orangey-brown coat

We went to the feeding and saw lots and lots of orangutans bustling around everywhere.  The big guy was so greedy and had so much food he had his leg in the food basket before he knew it!!  We watched them for ten minutes longer then we went to see the orangutan movie. It was really good and my favorite part was when the big guy got out into the forest and was really happy.

The baby one had spotted something being thrown by one of the other orangutans!

Now what shall I eat next?

You can even eat lying down.

We went to the discovery centre while waiting for the next feeding session.  We did the canopy walk and we saw a giant leech, it fell on to the ground from 30 metres up, he deserved it!  Then we went to a flower plantation but it wasn’t very good.  Afterwards we went to see the next feeding.  At the start, we didn’t see anything but then an orangutan came and started eating.  Then Mimi came and the other one fled and we saw a little one peek out of the bush and went on the rope on the other side. They chased each other and we got really close.  Daddy got some great photos and we can put them on the blog.

It doesn't look very comfortable but they seem to like it.

This one was right above our heads

Although with Daddy's wide angle lens, it looks like he is miles away!

Finally, we adopted an orangutan and she was called 'Lumiyud'.  ('Flood').  She was called Flood because she was found in a flood and her mum probably drowned.  We walked to the car park and the bus was full so we had to wait and off we went when it came back.

FACTS

1. A wild orangutan can live up to 45 years or more.  There was an orangutan in Philadelphia zoo who was 58!
2. Orangutan means ‘man of the forest.’  ‘Orang’ means people and ‘hutan’ means forest.
3. When orangutans are annoyed they put their lips together and make a kissing noise called a ‘kiss squeak!’
4. There are two species of orangutans.  One is called pongo abelii and the other is called pongo pygmaeus.