Sandakan Favorites

Favorite thing: I find out the location was different from to map. Anyway, you can get to latest Sandakan map from the hotel. Just go to Tourist information center and get all the info you want. The center staff is very helpful.
The Tourist Cneter is just opposite the Police Station and very near the Sandakan Hotel.

Favorite thing: The Orang Utan you find in Sepilok is one of the two sorts of Orang Utans there are in the world. In Sepilok you'll see the Borneo Orang Utan (Pongo pygmaeus), the other sort is the Sumatra Orang Utan.

Statistics:
An Orang Utan get reach a height of 1.50 metres, in very few cases this can be taller. The width with his arms spread can reach an amazing 2.25 metres! The animals have a weight of up to 100 kilos, although in zoo's that can be double that weight. An Orang Utan can get 30 years old in the wildernis, in capitivity that can be over 50 years. Interesting to know: Orang Utans DNA is 96,4% the same as human DNA. No wonder you will find a lot of similarities between us, in both looks as behaviour.

How the Orang Utans live
Borneo Orang Utans nowadays only live the mountains of the island. They used to lived all over the island, but due to timbertrade and hunters their population has decreased rapidly in the past decades.

It takes a pregnant Orang Utan mother between 255 and 275 days to give birth to a baby. After that period the baby is fed by the mother for 3 to 4 years, a period in which the mother is not able to get pregnant again. For this reason a female Orang Utan can give birth to 6 babies in her life maximum.

Just as humans the Orang Utans are omnivours: all-eaters. They feed themselves with fruits, leaves, mushrooms, insects, lizards or eggs.

Favorite thing: Just like any major city in the world, Sandakan too, do have a Tourist Information Centre(look at the picture and see for yourself). If you happened to be in the city, take the opportunity to visit this place maybe you can learn a thing or two about the touristic place surrounding Sandakan.

In the Bristist colonial era, this building used to be the District Office where all administrative official works were done then later it was turn into a Post office and currently Tourist Information Centre.

Favorite thing: Mothers will care for their offspring for about eight years. Unfortunately, there is still the danger of poaching. Unscrupulous poachers will kill a mother orangutan in order to kidnap the young orangutan. It is still a badge of honor in some circles to keep young orangutans as pets. When they get older and are no longer suitable for living in or around a home they are discarded or killed.

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center cares for orphaned orangutans and they are lovingly taught orangutan skills by the dedicated staff. A two year old orangutan will not develop skills necessary to survive by pure instinct alone. Just like humans, most of the skills that an adult orangutan possesses are learned rather than inate.

Favorite thing: Anthropomorphism--the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to inanimate objects or animals.

Yes, guilty as charged. I apply human characteristics to many types of animals. I'm sorry but I believe that animals are far from being inanimate objects. Anyone who spends time around animals knows that they have a wide array of emotions: ranging from joy, sorrow, guilt, jealousy etc.

I would say that this adult orangutan is showing signs of the human attribute of shyness. I know this offends the behavioral scientists, but screw them--this is my travel page and I will athropomorphize as much as I want.