BUKIT MERAH, Perak, July 2014 - The 35-acre idyllic lush green island is accessible by a 20-minute boat ride from the jetty of the landscaped lake of Bukit Merah in Semanggol, Perak, and it has been named Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island for an obvious reason.

Five acres of the island has been turned into a research facility-cum-sanctuary for orang utan which are fenced in for visitors to observe these gentle primates in an environment that is close to their natural habitat yet without any physical contact with them.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Vice-Chancellor Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman, Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Foundation Chairman Tan Sri Datuk (Dr) Hj Mustapha Kamal bin Hj Abu Bakar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Jantan, USM School of Biological Sciences (SoBS) lecturer, Professor Dr. Mashhor Mansor, and a group of biology students from SoBS visited the Orang Utan Island of Bukit Merah recently.

The group was given a tour to observe wild, free-ranging adult and young orang utans in the forest area.

Feeding time was fun time for orang utans as they took the opportunity to play as well in a manner of socialising among themselves.

There are about 30 orang utans on the island of which at least 10 of them were born on the island with Mike, aged 29, being the oldest in the group of this subspecies of the great apes.

As they are endangered, there is an intensive effort to breed them in an on-going programme for this primate which is endemic to the island of Borneo.

After observing these primates, tourists often felt how human-like they are yet so vulnerable, desperately needing protection. In fact, they share 97 per cent of the human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Although they may not be able to communicate in human language, they resemble us in the way they express their emotions, the ability to play, groom, and communicate in their own way. There is little wonder why they are called ‘orang utan’ or ‘man of the forest’.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Orang Utan Island Foundation research and educational programme Dr Sabapathy Dharmalingam told the visiting group that there are two species of orang utans: Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii.

“They can only be found in Malaysia and Indonesia,” he said, adding that these primates are able to produce 32 different sound intonations to communicate.

Sabapathy pointed out that orang utans are difficult to rehabilitate as they are very intelligent and are able to live up to 40 years in the wild.

They have to be handled with care because an adult orang utan is about seven times stronger than an adult human.

“You would certainly not want to annoy or mess with an orang utan,” he quipped.

Text & Photo: Mina Seifi/Editing: Yong Check Yoon