Orangutan Sanctuaries & Rehabilitation Centers in Malaysia

The wonderful orangutan is only found in parts of Borneo and parts of Sumatra. On both islands their habitats are severely threatened by the increase of human activities like (illegal) logging, mining, forest fires and the ongoing construction of palm oil plantations. Currently the orangutans at Sumatra are critically endangered; which means there only are a few thousand of them left. The Bornean species is doing a little better, though numbers are said to be below 50.000 in total.

The largest part of all remaining orangutans live in Indonesia. There Dr. Willie Smits founded the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation that has many active rehabilitation programs (and centers) throughout Indonesia. Many tourists that visit Malaysia want to pay a visit to one of the Orangutan Sanctuaries. A few are very much worth visiting in Malaysia; those have special programs to create awareness among visitors, instead of only using the animals as a tourist attraction. The most popular sanctuaries are Sepilok Rehabilitation Center in Sabah, and Semenggoh Wildlife Center in Sarawak. Nearby Sememggoh, Matang Wildlife Center used to have an active project as Semenggoh couldn't cope with all the orangutans that needed rehabilitation. However, this program stopped due to some unfortunate events.

Sanctuaries & Rehabilitation Centers

 

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