Close encounters with orangutans (Mar. 1/09 - Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia

Today was one of those days that we will never forget. We set off hiking into the jungle with our guide Tambrin, a couple from the Czeck Republic, and their guide. The trail started up through a plantation of rubber trees, which each had a small bucket hanging from the trunk to catch the white raw latex that pours from the tree when the bark is cut. Tambrin pointed out trees bearing cloves, betel nut, and other medicinal plants. Soon we came to the park boundary, where the plantations ended and the rainforest began. A thick canopy keeps the ground level vegetation rather dark, while lush plants grow entirely from other trees dozens of metres above the ground. We weren't even ten minutes into the jungle yet when we spotted our first orangutan. It was exciting, hearing the guide whispering and then scanning the trees for your first sight of orange hair staring back at you. There were actually two of them - a large female and her little baby, who was about three years old (they stay with their mother for six years). The little guy climbed around and then hung onto his mom's neck, both of them gazing down at us with no intention of gonig anywhere. The trail went steeply down to a creek and then straight up the other side, where the footing was slippery, the humidity was intense, and every tree branch you had to maneuver around was crawling with ants. Just as we made it up to the main trail, we turned around and saw a juvenile male orangutan, about 6 years old and probably freshly on his own, swinging around in the trees over the trail we just came up. The guides have been giving bananas to the orangutans for years (which is a practice we don't entirely agree with), so they often approach people in the hope of being fed, albeit cautiously and not without being encouraged. So this little guy came swinging through the trees toward us and didn't stop until he was within arms' reach! He hun onto a branch and accepted chunks of banana from the guides, not at all concerned about our presence. They let me offer one to him, and when I held it out, he took it gently with his insanely human-like hands (complete with finger nails!), ate it slowly, and then looked me right in the eyes as if to say thank you. It was amazing to be so close to such a special, critically endangered creature.

Later on, we encountered a big female hanging around in a tree, who came down for a banana and then hung around until she was convinced she wasn't getting any more. Multiple guides hike through the park with visitors in tow, and sometiems they would call eachother on cellphones to alert them of orangutan sightings. So when our guide's phone rang and he waved at us to hurry along the trail, we were excited! In a small clearing, we found a young female doing acrobatics in the trees, a pregnant middle aged female hanging out just above the ground, and a huge male with a big round satellite dish-shaped face. The guides estimated that he was about 40 years old, and pretty much as big as they come. Considering that they only live to be about 40, he would be a pretty old man! None of these animals are normally agressive as long as you let them come to you, but they did caution us to not open our bags near them since they sometimes relate that to being fed. All three of them just watched us, climbed up and down in the trees, scratched themselves, and probably wondered why we were just standing there looking at them. We considered ourselves very lucky to have seen so many orangutans already, especially the big male, as they are very rarely spotted.

We sat down at a wide spot in the trail for lunch, and Tambrin served up some spicy fried rice, prawn crackers, and fresh pineapple. We carried on, looking out for action in the trees, and spotted a rare white gibbon, a crazy black centipede that was 8 inches long, with red pointy legs and an extremely poisonous set of pinchers, and heard the calls of a black gibbon and a wild peacock. The trail headed straight down a tricky slope, across a creek, up again, and then down to our camp for the night. Located right beside a postcard-perfect stream with a small waterafll and a plastic lean-to for sleeping under, it was a pretty sweet (but rustic!) jungle setup. We cooled off in the stream to refresh after the exhausting hike down, then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, all the while scanning the treetops occasionally for orangutans. Three nests could be seen right above us, and macaques played in the trees while eyeing our dinner that cooked on the fire and occasionally pooping on us. The guys cooked up some tasty, spicy curries for dinner, and when darkness fell we headed to bed, nearly deafened by the sounds of the nocturnal jungle creatures.