Ritchie and Co.
Jan. 19th, 2012 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranA path through the jungle... Where does it lead?
A crowd watches in near silence...
The reason? Ritchie and his gals are in town... (The one on the left is Seduku.)
This is the feeding platfom at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. The orangutans here have mostly been rescued from a tragically short life as pets and trained to live in the wild. They still return to the platforms for meals, but the guide has warned us that this is the fruit season in the forest and we might not see any at all. So, it's an exciting moment to Ritchie and the gang waiting for us.
Ritchie, as you might imagine, is the dominant male. He even has his own rap sheet at the picture gallery.
Note that "some facilities" includes the last set of signs put up to illustrate the local troop's family tree.
Who? Me?
Also, have you ever wondered why everyone is so scared of The Librarian in the Discworld novels? It's because HE'S BUILT LIKE AN ORANGUTAN!
The crowd went very quiet when he picked up a conveniently skull-sized coconut and smashed it into pieces againt the railing, like he was dashing an egg.
There were no fences between us and the orangutans and we were warned to keep at least five metres away at all times. Here's one of the staff nearby so you can get a sense of scale.
Just to drum it in, the visitors centre had a set of visual reminders not to come too close.
Altogether, there were five orangutans, which had even our guide excited. He could recognize each of them by sight, and told us their family history.
This one is Baka, the most playful of the group we saw that day.
All-in-all, a magical experience. I've seen orangutans before in Melbourne Zoo, but to get this close in the wild was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We were actually doubly lucky, because after Ritchie and Co left the first feeding platform, they sauntered over to another platform nearer the carpark, so we got to get an even closer view.
Also in the forest, an army of ants...
And an army of plants...
But it was an army of primates that won the day...
A crowd watches in near silence...
The reason? Ritchie and his gals are in town... (The one on the left is Seduku.)
This is the feeding platfom at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. The orangutans here have mostly been rescued from a tragically short life as pets and trained to live in the wild. They still return to the platforms for meals, but the guide has warned us that this is the fruit season in the forest and we might not see any at all. So, it's an exciting moment to Ritchie and the gang waiting for us.
Ritchie, as you might imagine, is the dominant male. He even has his own rap sheet at the picture gallery.
Note that "some facilities" includes the last set of signs put up to illustrate the local troop's family tree.
Who? Me?
Also, have you ever wondered why everyone is so scared of The Librarian in the Discworld novels? It's because HE'S BUILT LIKE AN ORANGUTAN!
The crowd went very quiet when he picked up a conveniently skull-sized coconut and smashed it into pieces againt the railing, like he was dashing an egg.
There were no fences between us and the orangutans and we were warned to keep at least five metres away at all times. Here's one of the staff nearby so you can get a sense of scale.
Just to drum it in, the visitors centre had a set of visual reminders not to come too close.
Altogether, there were five orangutans, which had even our guide excited. He could recognize each of them by sight, and told us their family history.
This one is Baka, the most playful of the group we saw that day.
All-in-all, a magical experience. I've seen orangutans before in Melbourne Zoo, but to get this close in the wild was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We were actually doubly lucky, because after Ritchie and Co left the first feeding platform, they sauntered over to another platform nearer the carpark, so we got to get an even closer view.
Also in the forest, an army of ants...
And an army of plants...
But it was an army of primates that won the day...
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 02:44 am (UTC)The pitcher plants are pretty. I didn't realize they grew in clumps/so closely.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 03:23 am (UTC)