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Best of Both Worlds for Datuk Noor

Bob Holmes writes from Sepilok sanctuary, Malaysia
***Orphaned orang-utans face a tough, task surviving. Gemini News Service, reports from a special centre ir^ Malaysia, which is teaching them tev climb and find food before returning them to the wild, where they must also learn to get on with touchy neighbours.***
ITS feeding time at Sepilok Station A. and Datuk Noor comes crashing through the Jungle in time for brunch.
This 100-kllogram orangutan is one of the more celebrated former inmates to be returned to the wild from this sanctuary deep in the heart of Sabah, east Malaysia. His latest visit causes a stir ' on the platform where a buffet of durians, rambutans bananas, wild fruits and buckets of milk have been laid out by rangers.
Other orang-utans, munching contentedly as tourists snap photographs from a safe distance, suddenly make way for him.
A couple of youngsters retreat into the bush Two braver ones hang a left to get a closer look at the tourists
and perflaps snatch a banana chocolate bar or handbag Babies cling to their mothers. Clementine, a 1 O-year-old fe'male and Datuk Noor's .mate, preens herself as he closes in.
"Datuk Noor enjoys the best of both worlds, says Dr Edwin Bosi a veterinary offi cer at Sepilok who monitors the orang-utan population at the centre
"At 17 years of age. he la more than capable of looking after himself in the wild, but knows where he can get a good food nearby at a regular time of day
More than 100 orang utans have been rehabilitated since the centre opened 30 years ago to handle mainly orphans who have lost their mothers to logging or poaching. Like Datuk Noor, they have been taught to fend for themselves but many still return for handouts
I Life tn the wild Is not all milk and bananas - >spe dally during the monsoons
Orangutans need a lot of sustenance and yet they have neither the balance nor the manoeuvrability of other lighter tree dwellers
Those released from the sanctuary must make adjust menta after their time in the care of humans. And then there is the reception they are likely to get from their wild cousins, who can be touchy about territory
The figures are modest — a handful of orang-utans rehabilitated annually — and the results are. as Bosi acknowi edges, "not conclusive as we don't really have a follow up programme" But the Sepilok experiment has been ac claimed as one of the most imaginative wildlife conservation Initiatives In the world
It has also become a pillar of the Sabah tourist Industry “It's one of the state s main attractions." says Jannette Padaslan of the Sabah Tourism Promotion Corpora Uon
For Bosi this represents a
dilemma We are caught between tourism and conserva Uon. The two are not really compatible, which Is why we have restricted the times tourists can come and see the orang-utans' he says
"On the other hand, tourist revenue contributes to the project (which Is mainly government-funded) and tourism has heightened awareness worldwide of the dangers of the animals. At the moment. It Is a compromise
Set in 43 square kilometres of rain forest. 25 kllome tree from the port of San dakan on Sabah's east coast. Sepilok had been a forest reserve since 1931 In 1964. the orang-utan centre was founded
Although not an endan gered species, the animals' natural habitat was becoming Increasingly vulnerable to the chainsaw
In addition animal traders can sell adult orang utans to zoos for up to 850.000 and. despite a law forbidding It.
some people keep the babies as pets, allowing them to sleep on mattresses, and even dressing them In baby clothes.
"They're cute when they're young and are so like humans." Bosi says. "The problems really arise when they get older. We have found some mature ones which are kept all day in cages."
When animals are brought In. they spend their first two months in quarantine on a diet of mainly milk, bananas and vitamin supplements.
When they are deemed healthy, they are released Into the sanctuary, where they learn to lead a more normal and independent life. Rangers feed them and teach them to climb, encouraging i hem to grasp ropes and wooden structures as well as trees.
"All this can take years.'' explains Bosi. 'But gradually as they become more adept at looking after themselves, we toughen the regime Food Is reduced, time spent out In the wild is increased and their dependency on humans is reduced."
It Is a long process that gets more complicated as the animal reaches sexual maturity — "then the trouble starts, chuckles Bosi again comparing them to humans. “They lose respect for the people who raised them and want to go off on their own while being unable to support themselves properly
There are 200 orang-utans at the centre now. "none of which would probably be alive now were It not for the centre. says Bosi
With an estimated popula tton of between 5,000 and 10.000 In Sabah alone — others live in Sarawak and Kalimantan on Borneo and on the island of Sumatra — the orang utan has a reasonably healthy gene pool for survival.
So far. the "compromise" Is working well.
Bob Holmes is a British freelance Journalist based in Kuala Lumpur