Borneo - Indonesia

Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest island in Asia. At the geographic center of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra.

Tanjung Puting

Tanjung Putting is a national park (formerly a Reserve) located in Central Borneo Province. It is the place where you can see Orangutan in its natural habitat. It is considered as the biggest and the most diverse protected forest with 415. 040 ha of covered area. This national park covered different type of forest, such as tropical rain lowland forest, tropical heath forest (kerangas), mangrove forest, swamp forest, and secondary forest.

This forest occupied by 38 kinds of mammal, 9 kinds of primates: Orangutan, proboscis monkey, long tailed macaque, etc. Here, you can also find 230 species of bird from the famous hornbills to the rare sandang lawe (Ciconia stormi). As for the vegetation, you can find most of it in the tropical heath forest with the majority of insectivore plants.

Aside from its biological diversity, Tanjung Puting is also important for the local people around the area. The wetland provides vitals ecological services such as flood control, steam regulation control, erosion control, natural filtration system, seasonal nurseries for fish which are the major source of local animal protein. Not only the services mentioned before, the local also benefits the national park from its forest product such as honey, firewood, rattan, etc.

It puts Tanjung Puting as the treasure important of the Central Borneo province. The government of Indonesia has committed to protect this Garden of Eden and its wildlife. The Orangutan conservation center become the main attraction which attracted many tourist to come to this area every year.

Camp Leaky

Located in the Tanjung Puting Reserve (now National Park) in Central Borneo, Camp Leakey was established in 1971 by Dr. Biruté Galdikas and former spouse Rod Brindamour. It was named after the legendary paleo-anthropologist, Louis Leakey, who was both mentor and an inspiration to Dr. Galdikas as well as Drs. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. Originally consisting of just two huts, Camp Leakey is now an assemblage of permanent wooden structures designed to provide a base for scientists, staff, students, and Park Rangers.

Over the years, Camp Leakey has supported the research efforts of dozens of scientists and students including undergraduate and graduate students from Indonesia (Univeristas Nasional & Universitas Gajamada) and North America. Many have gone on to receive their Ph.D. degrees. Projects have ranged from orangutan, proboscis monkey, gibbon and leaf-eating monkey behavior and ecology, to studies of orangutan sign language abilities and cognition, to leech behavior, and river system ecology.

As an active research facility, Camp Leakey welcomes day visitors with local guides. Visitors are not allowed to overnight at Camp Leakey. OFI staff ask that you come with the appropriate permits, check-in with the rangers, observe the orangutans from a safe distance, and do not disturb the scientists conducting research.

Orangutan

The name orangutan derives from 2 words, orang which means a person and hutan which means forest. So the name orangutan literally means a person of the forest. It can be because orangutan is the primate which is closest to the human race. There are 2 places where you can find orangutan, Sumatera and Borneo. In Borneo, there are around 54.000 of orangutan with one endangered sub-species. There are a lot of effort to conserve the life of Orangutan which always decreasing because of deforestation, such as the making of Conservation center. Here you can see some quick fact about Orangutan:

1. Orangutan is the biggest arboreal mammal in the world.
2. Adult male Orangutan can reach 50 – 90kg of weight and 1 – 1.5 m tall. Meanwhile the female can reach 30-50kg of weight and 1m tall.
3. Orangutan can spread his arms until 8 m long.
4. During the first years of its life, a young orangutan will hold on to their mother tight while she travels through the forest’s canopy.
5. Orangutan lives in the lowland forest (under 500m above sea level)