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About Red Ape Encounters |
News Year 2008
Chronology of the establishment of Red Ape Encounters & Adventure (RAE) 15 October 2001 - MoU was signed between the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) represented by Chief Technical Advisor, Mr Soren Mark Jensen and Dr Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz, the Director of Kinabatangan Orang-Utan Conservation Project (KOCP) to form a community-based ecotourism project. Year 2002 - MoU was signed between Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and KOCP to support the formation of Red Ape Encounters & Adventures and to endorse it as the department’s model project in Sabah under its Community Programme. 10 October 2002 - A workshop organised by SWD and KOCP in the village of Sukau to explain the concept of a model for community-based Orang-Utan ecotourism project called Red Ape Encounters & Adventures. It was also to gauge the local communities response and feedback to this concept which entails benefit-sharing mechanism from tourism proceeds. The result was positive and the communities of Sukau accepted the concept of the model project and was work together for the benefit of the communities. The Sukau Tourism Committee was formed concurrently. 2nd October 2003 - RAE was registered as a Private Limited company (Co. No. 630230-P) with the Registrar of Company in Malaysia. 18th April 2005 - RAE applied for Trading License with the District Office of Kinabatangan. 8th June 2005 - RAE was granted an Inbound Tour Operator’s license by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism under the license number KPL/LN: 3981. Year 2005 - RAE started its full operations as an inbound ecotourism tour operator in the village of Sukau.
Desperately Seeking Etin My sister, Katie Jenkins based in the Cardiff office of Scottish and Southern Energy, as part of a generous staff benefit package was given the adoption rights to an orang-utan called ‘Etin’. In turn, I was awarded honorary adoption rights and this is the story of my search for Etin. December 2007 I went to Malaysia for a short period as a volunteer on various orang-utan projects. My trip started with a stint as a Zoo Assistant in the Ape Centre at Kuala Lumpur’s Zoo Negara, home to 8 orang-utans. Armed with minimal orang-utan observational skills gained at the zoo I travelled to the ‘Heart of Borneo’ staying in an Iban tribe longhouse and joined a project undertaking a population-count of wild orang-utan in the Batang Ai area. Due to this area’s isolation and difficult terrain it was believed the orang-utan retains a firm foothold on its jungle existence. Despite being led, helped - even on occasions carried - by the Iban expert trackers, disappointingly we never saw a wild orang-utan. Whilst in Borneo I visited various Orang-utan rehabilitation sanctuaries. The sanctuaries have been established to enable rehabilitation to the jungle by teaching climbing skills and food foraging skills. The Sanctuaries’ orang-utan populations grow at an alarming rate and now offer sanctuary to mature adults as well as the very young. Etin is a wild orang-utan who lives deep in a jungle that curtains either side of the Kinabatangan River (a protected area of virgin rainforest jungle, entirely encircled by Palm Oil Plantations). Finding Etin required the help of the Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project (KOCP) headed by Dr Marc Acrenaz and his wife Dr Isabelle Lackman-Acrenaz. The Project is based in Sukau a rural village housing 150 families who for many generations have lived in this area. The KOCP employ many villagers as Research Officers to track and record population counts of orang-utans. The KOCP have been responsible for observing Etin and his family – mother Jenny and lately Mollotus the new little brother, over a number of years. This area supports an abundance of exotic wildlife, most them unique to this area of Borneo. Mincho, my sharp-eyed guide, points out numerous sighting of Proboscis monkeys, swamp mango snakes, swiftlets, hornbills, eagles, macaques, as I am ferried up and down the river armed with cameras, binoculars and poncho for when the monsoon decides to drench us. Mincho, Azlee, (acknowledged as one of KOCP’s best trackers), and I set off to track wild orang-utans. Highly experienced Nature Guides/Research Officers for the KOCP they both try to prepare me for disappointment, explaining how difficult it is tracking wild orang-utan as populations decrease. Finding Etin or Jenny and her baby, Mollotus, is most unlikely..
Etin is 8 years old and has left Jenny’s protection which allows her time to devote to baby Mollotus. The trackers explain that there’s a slim chance though they no longer live together as an orang-utan family group, they may use the same jungle tracks, and if we locate an adolescent in this vicinity it will be Etin. The excitement grows – will I really see my adopted orang-utan? Suddenly, I hear a loud crashing noise which gets louder followed by the swaying of surrounding trees. Azlee mouths ‘orang-utan’. The sheer heart thudding thrills of hearing an orang-utan’s arrival while sitting in a muddy wet jungle is indescribable and, when the crashing stopped - there was Etin peering from the tree’s high branches at me. I was thrilled but having never met a wild orang-utan before, couldn’t tell how Etin was feeling; he began to shake the tree branches frantically (possibly indicating fear and aggression) but after a short time and remaining in the same tree he began to pick fruits. Etin stayed for about 30 minutes, slowly moving from tree to tree he grazed on the choicest fruits. Orang-utans may look ungainly with their short legs, fat bellies, and endless long arms but they traverse the canopy of trees effortlessly. Gradually the swaying of the trees and the noise of cracking branches ceased and Etin had disappeared. We returned to Jenny and Mollotus’s tree just in time to see swaying trees and hear the familiar sound of branches cracking – it is amazing how an ungainly mother, carrying an almost helpless baby, can vanish in such a remarkably short period of time. This article is courtesy of Stevie Burges. ****************** |
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Hours later, deep in the jungle, slipping and sliding in oozing mud and enormous amounts of elephant poo, Azlee points to a very tall tree thick with foliage and indicates ‘silence’. Apart from the mosquitoes dive-bombing us again and again, all is quiet. Unexpectedly from the tree I clearly heard a ‘kiss-squeak’ noise which I recognise as orang-utan. I can’t believe it – I am incredibly close to a wild orang-utan! The kiss-squeak sound continues and Azlee having investigated grins: ‘Two orang-utans, a mother and baby’. I adjust my vision and finally see something relatively small, orangey and hairy and moving. A baby orang-utan. Is this Jenny and Mollotus – Etin’s family? The two trackers believe so, based on the estimated age of the baby, and the area of jungle.