We’re nearly prepared to move into the eating corridor when a forest guard strides into camp. There are some murmurs and I instantly catch the drift of the dialog. There’s been an orangutan sighted. I instantly head to the trailhead.
There’s a little bit of confusion. My touring companions are equally excited. Everybody’s able to go.
However there’s additionally some type of dialogue among the many camp workers: Go search for the orangutan now or wait till after lunch?
This doesn’t look like a lot of a choice. I’d fully skip lunch – a number of lunches – to see an orangutan.
I do know we don’t have a lot time. I’m not on a wildlife-spotting vacation. I had the nice alternative to affix Nature Conservancy’s company companion Arhaus, an organization that has offered assist to YKAN, TNC’s major companion in Indonesia, in serving to preserve tropical rainforests in East Kalimantan.This in flip will play a key position in making certain viable orangutan populations in East Borneo.
We had a couple of hours on the nationwide park, our greatest shot at seeing an orangutan. I needed to maximise the possibilities. A forest information joined me on the trailhead. In signal language, he was urging me to be affected person.
Then booming thunder echoed by means of the forest. A storm would ship orangutans scurrying and we’d haven’t any probability.
The information checked out me and smiled, though I might additionally detect a way of urgency. “We go now.”
Into the Forest
The information instantly took off at a trot, me scrambling to maintain up. A whoop echoed by means of the forest. An orangutan? No, a information up forward signaling he had noticed an orangutan. Our tempo quickened and we headed off path.
I slipped on mud, tripped over tree roots. My ratty quick-dry pants shredded as they hit thorns. I felt virtually indescribably comfortable.
Looking for wild mammals has been a life ardour, one which began maybe earlier than I might speak. I’d stare on the Nationwide Geographic and watch Marlin Perkins’ Wild Kingdom and dream of safaris and rainforests, of seeing these superior creatures of their wild habitats.
It’s a pursuit that has taken me world wide, at no small expense, trying to find every part from tigers to tree kangaroos. Looking for wildlife, and my different ardour of freshwater fishing, are actually the one methods I get out of my very own head and focus solely on the second – reaching that elusive “stream.” Each fishing and wildlife watching are stuffed with failure, however the buzz you get from success retains me on the market. I usually will discover that I get so caught up that I forego meals, water and customary sense whereas within the pursuit.
And the orangutan is one in every of my “most needed to see” mammals.
Jogging and tripping by means of the rainforest, I’ve an adrenaline jolt simply from the search. And there’s additionally this: the locations the place giant mammals stay are sometimes essentially the most spectacular on the planet.
Kutai Nationwide Park
Kutai Nationwide Park is simply such a spot. Simply getting there had been a journey, begun at 3 a.m. with an inside flight from Jakarta, adopted by hours on rutted and rocky roads. Round any curve, a truck carrying palm fruits may come barreling in your lane. We bounced and swerved and careened for hours. I felt grateful I didn’t undergo from movement illness.
We lastly pulled into slightly parking space and boarded boats, touring up the river because the occasional water chicken lifted from reeds. We pulled right into a forested boardwalk and inside minutes I knew I’d love Kutai. Fishing rods had been propped alongside the cabins; interpretive indicators knowledgeable guests of the wealthy range of mammals, birds and reptiles discovered right here. I might have stayed for per week. Longer.
Lengthy-tailed macaques performed within the timber as we waited for lunch. A big monitor lizard consumed refuse from the eating corridor. The sounds of bugs and birds stuffed the air.
Kutai has one of many healthiest orangutan populations in Indonesian Borneo, and we had been – we hoped – on the path of one in every of them.
The thick, dense rainforest is wealthy in wildlife nevertheless it’s hardly ever straightforward to see them. It’s not the Serengeti or Yellowstone, the place herds of huge animals feed on the plains. Orangutans feed, construct nests and go about most of their lives above floor. They’re the world’s largest arboreal mammal.
And so we made our means by means of the forest. I might hear my colleagues and new associates rustling behind me. We listened because the guides softly hooted forwards and backwards to one another. Our group milled across the forest, listening, straining eyes.
A information waved his hand and smiled. We had been getting shut.
The Encounter
We approached a big tree, and fingers pointed to a swaying department tops. Priscilla Christin, YKAN’s communications director, whispered, “It’s up there.”
I seemed, and at first might see solely loads of rustling. I saved my eyes on that motion, and…there.
An arm. A protracted, crimson, very furry arm. It reached out and plucked one thing off a department.
I pulled my binoculars to my eyes, simply because it shifted, revealing the entire physique of a giant male orangutan. It swung by means of the timber, then allowed extra extended views. I bumped fists with Meg Goldthwaite, Chief Advertising and marketing Officer for TNC, and the one who invited me on this journey.
I returned to watching this nice ape. I felt overwhelmed in that means that defies phrases.
I do know others really feel this fashion when seeing a mountain vista or listening to stay music or staring by means of a telescope. For me, it’s wild mammals. There’s a component of a childhood dream come true. There’s the enjoyable of being in a rainforest, of strolling in a spot the place so many creatures stay out of sight, that it makes seeing one all of the extra a deal with. Additionally: simply the otherness of untamed animals. Right here’s this ape, a creature that shares greater than 97 p.c of its DNA with me, nevertheless it’s transferring effortlessly by means of the tree tops.
The orangutan didn’t reciprocate the awe. Inside a couple of minutes, it started dropping branches on us. It seemed to be extra an act of annoyance than rage, because it continued transferring by means of the timber, plucking fruits. We adopted simply.
Thunder boomed. I had forgotten the upcoming storm. However I took one other second to benefit from the orangutan. It’s exhausting to know when or if I’d come this fashion once more, so it was a second to pause.
It’s a sighting I’ll bear in mind and cherish, however I additionally acknowledge it’s simply an exclamation level on why we’re right here.
There generally is a tendency in endangered species tourism to “see them earlier than they’re gone” – an angle that’s tough for me to abide. Right here, we had been seeing them after which seeing how conservation might help guarantee these animals have a future.
For now, although, this orangutan is sufficient. His arm extends out and chucks a very giant department. It lands with a thud close to us. There’s a little bit of chuckling. The orangutan appears to be like down, exhibiting his bowl-shaped face.
Then there’s extra thunder, now nearer, and drops of rain. The orangutan swings by means of the timber. We’re going to get soaked. It’s time to move again. Lunch is ready.
