The Sabah Forest Department (SFD) has discovered an abundance of orang utan nests in reserves deep in the heart of the state. This is the highest ever recorded in more than a decade.

orang utan in sabah 250906The Deramakot Forest Reserve, according to the SFD, "has even astonished wildlife biologists with its rich array and abundance of wildlife".

"This is the result of our latest survey in the Deramakot, Tangkulap and parts of Sungai Pinangah forest reserves to monitor the population dynamics of wildlife," said SFD director Sam Mannan. "The census is part of our routine monitoring activity conducted twice a year."

He was commenting on a statement by former Sabah Attorney General Herman Luping in a local media last week querying the survival rate of the orang utan in the wild. He noted, during a visit, that there were very few orang utan at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC), Sandakan.

Luping believes the survival rate of the orang utan in the wild would be much higher if the state government plan to connect fragmented forest reserves by wildlife corridors is expedited.

Mannan conceded in his update that the recent significant increase in the estimated population of orang utan detected may not mean a growing population.

It could even be the result of greater visibility resulting in better nest observations or a one-off phenomenon which attracted orang utan from other forests.

"The massive flowering and fruiting of trees experienced this year following a prolonged drought might explain the high visibility of orang utan nests. The data needs further verification."

NONEMannan (right) disclosed that the recent survey of orang utan nests, among others, was conducted over two days and covered nine permanent aerial transects totaling 175km.

All in 1,979 nests were enumerated for Deramakot and 540 for Tangkulap-Sungai Pinangah forest reserves.

This translates, continued the SFD director, into 3.13 orang utan per sq km or 1,726 individuals in Deramakot and 2.06 orang utan per sq km or 1,031 individuals in Tangkulap and parts of Sungai Pinangah. "Tangkulap and Sungai Pinangah, despite being a much degraded forest, still holds a sizeable number of orang utan," said Mannan.

Away from the popular orang utan, Mannan  said that camera traps proved that the "extinct" hairy-nosed otter (Lutra Sumatrana) continues to still survive in the wild while there's an abundance of large flying foxes (Pteropus Vampyrus).

The bottomline for the SFD is that well-managed and certified forests like Deramakot could help conserve bio-diversity in perpetuity and allow them to breed well "even when harvesting of timber is a component".

Counted from helicopter

The twice-yearly census, generally the counting of orang utan nests from a helicopter, started in Dec 1999, according to SFD records. The orang utan has been identified as of high conservation value due to its rare, threatened and endangered (RTE) status as declared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Likewise, Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Laurentius Ambu is cautiously optimistic about the orang utan. "If you don't see any orang utan at Sepilok that means that there are none to rehabilitate," said Ambu. "But it's not as if we are no longer rehabilitating orang utan."

NONESepilok, stressed Ambu has always been about rehabilitating the orang utan and releasing them into the wild, although the centre is now being actively promoted as a tourism product.

The orang utan taken in at Sepilok are usually taken from people who kept them as pets, or injured and sick animals from the wild, he added. "Sepilok has released many orang utan in forest reserves like Tabin, Deramakot and Danum."

Wild orang utan are not exactly hospitable hosts, points out Ambu, "and so the SFW takes weeks and days before making sure that a rehabilitated animal is safe in the wild. Initially, they keep returning - after being released - to the men who cared for them." He agrees that "it's a heart-wrenching sight to let a rehabilitated orang utan go".

"We do not simply dump the rehabilitated orang utan in the wild," said Ambu. "The centre keeps taking in sick and orphaned orang utans and when they are around, visitors will be able to see them."

SORC, located in the lush 4,300ha Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve about 25km from Sandakan, was initially established in 1964 to return orphaned orang utan back to the wild.