We’re just about ready to head into the dining hall when a forest guard strides into camp. There are some murmurs and I immediately catch the drift of the conversation. There’s been an orangutan sighted. I immediately head to the trailhead.
There’s a bit of confusion. My traveling companions are similarly excited. Everyone’s ready to go.
But there’s also some sort of discussion among the camp staff: Go look for the orangutan now or wait until after lunch?
This does not seem like much of a decision. I’d completely skip lunch – multiple lunches – to see an orangutan.
I know we don’t have much time. I’m not on a wildlife-spotting holiday. I had the great opportunity to join Nature Conservancy’s corporate partner Arhaus, a company that has provided support to YKAN, TNC’s main partner in Indonesia, in helping conserve tropical rainforests in East Kalimantan.This in turn will play a key role in ensuring viable orangutan populations in East Borneo.
We had a few hours at the national park, our best shot at seeing an orangutan. I wanted to maximize the chances. A forest guide joined me at the trailhead. In sign language, he was urging me to be patient.
Then booming thunder echoed through the forest. A storm would send orangutans scurrying and we’d have no chance.
The guide looked at me and smiled, although I could also detect a sense of urgency. “We go now.”
Into the Forest
The guide immediately took off at a trot, me scrambling to keep up. A whoop echoed through the forest. An orangutan? No, a guide up ahead signaling he had spotted an orangutan. Our pace quickened and we headed off trail.
I slipped on mud, tripped over tree roots. My ratty quick-dry pants shredded as they hit thorns. I felt almost indescribably happy.
Searching for wild mammals has been a life passion, one that started perhaps before I could talk. I’d stare at the National Geographic and watch Marlin Perkins’ Wild Kingdom and dream of safaris and rainforests, of seeing these awesome creatures in their wild habitats.
It’s a pursuit that has taken me around the world, at no small expense, searching for everything from tigers to tree kangaroos. Searching for wildlife, and my other passion of freshwater fishing, are really the only ways I get out of my own head and focus only on the moment – achieving that elusive “flow.” Both fishing and wildlife watching are filled with failure, but the buzz you get from success keeps me out there. I often will find that I get so caught up that I forego meals, water and common sense while in the pursuit.
And the orangutan is one of my “most wanted to see” mammals.
Jogging and tripping through the rainforest, I have an adrenaline jolt just from the search. And there’s also this: the places where large mammals remain are often the most spectacular on the planet.
Kutai National Park
Kutai National Park is just such a place. Just getting there had been a journey, begun at 3 a.m. with an internal flight from Jakarta, followed by hours on rutted and rocky roads. Around any curve, a truck carrying palm fruits might come barreling in your lane. We bounced and swerved and careened for hours. I felt grateful I didn’t suffer from motion sickness.
We finally pulled into a little parking area and boarded boats, traveling up the river as the occasional water bird lifted from reeds. We pulled into a forested boardwalk and within minutes I knew I’d love Kutai. Fishing rods were propped along the cabins; interpretive signs informed visitors of the rich diversity of mammals, birds and reptiles found here. I could have stayed for a week. Longer.
Long-tailed macaques played in the trees as we waited for lunch. A large monitor lizard fed on refuse from the dining hall. The sounds of insects and birds filled the air.
Kutai has one of the healthiest orangutan populations in Indonesian Borneo, and we were – we hoped – on the trail of one of them.
The thick, dense rainforest is rich in wildlife but it’s rarely easy to see them. It’s not the Serengeti or Yellowstone, where herds of large animals feed on the plains. Orangutans feed, build nests and go about most of their lives above ground. They’re the world’s largest arboreal mammal.
And so we made our way through the forest. I could hear my colleagues and new friends rustling behind me. We listened as the guides softly hooted back and forth to each other. Our group milled around the forest, listening, straining eyes.
A guide waved his hand and smiled. We were getting close.
The Encounter
We approached a large tree, and fingers pointed to a swaying branch tops. Priscilla Christin, YKAN’s communications director, whispered, “It’s up there.”
I looked, and at first could see only a lot of rustling. I kept my eyes on that movement, and…there.
An arm. A long, red, very hairy arm. It reached out and plucked something off a branch.
I pulled my binoculars to my eyes, just as it shifted, revealing the whole body of a large male orangutan. It swung through the trees, then allowed more prolonged views. I bumped fists with Meg Goldthwaite, Chief Marketing Officer for TNC, and the one who invited me on this trip.
I returned to watching this great ape. I felt overwhelmed in that way that defies words.
I know others feel this way when seeing a mountain vista or listening to live music or staring through a telescope. For me, it’s wild mammals. There’s an element of a childhood dream come true. There’s the fun of being in a rainforest, of walking in a place where so many creatures live out of sight, that it makes seeing one all the more a treat. Also: just the otherness of wild animals. Here’s this ape, a creature that shares more than 97 percent of its DNA with me, but it’s moving effortlessly through the tree tops.
The orangutan did not reciprocate the awe. Within a few minutes, it began dropping branches on us. It appeared to be more an act of annoyance than rage, as it continued moving through the trees, plucking fruits. We followed easily.
Thunder boomed. I had forgotten the impending storm. But I took another moment to enjoy the orangutan. It’s hard to know when or if I’d come this way again, so it was a moment to pause.
It is a sighting I’ll remember and cherish, but I also recognize it’s just an exclamation point on why we’re here.
There can be a tendency in endangered species tourism to “see them before they’re gone” – an attitude that’s difficult for me to abide. Here, we were seeing them and then seeing how conservation can help ensure these animals have a future.
For now, though, this orangutan is enough. His arm extends out and chucks a particularly large branch. It lands with a thud near us. There’s a bit of chuckling. The orangutan looks down, showing his bowl-shaped face.
Then there’s more thunder, now closer, and drops of rain. The orangutan swings through the trees. We’re going to get soaked. It’s time to head back. Lunch is waiting.
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