Sunday, March 12, 2006
Just Another Day At The Office...
Dusain had a day off today so this morning at the Outdoor Nursery was with Rosali. In reality there was very little to do there today, just a little bit of banana delivery (still plenty of sugar cane left from yesterday!) and some path sweeping.
Most of the orangutans were already loitering at the feeding platform so when we swept that we had to keep one eye on the slippery decking and the other on Doggy & co.
I had my first leech there too. The little blood sucker managed to get his mouth onto one of my fingers while i was walking back from the platform. A few carefully aimed flicks and he was back into the bushes with no lasting harm done.
Only Pat and Eyos were keeping us company at "The Office" cage today. 
It's called "The Office" because after a tree smashed the roof of a brick building a couple of years ago, Dusain simply moved his desk inside a disused holding cage! Ever since then, the wild orangutans are free to wander up and watch the caged humans - an ironic role reversal! These pictures were taken by the last group a couple of weeks back when it was a bit sunnier and Dusain was here to pose...
After that we were free to go back and watch the Orangutans at the feeding platform with the tourists. I could never get bored of doing that! A bit overcast there today, which makes taking sharp photos difficult in the poor light - i hope you can make them out ok...
We also bumped into a guy called Jack there again too. He is another Travellers volunteer - we first met him at our Sepilok welcome party and he is teaching science and maths at a local primary school. Elis was chatting with him for a while so on the way back he decided to show him around the orangutan Indoor Nursery and also take him down to the Sumatran Rhino enclosure. I hadn't been there yet so i tagged along too and we saw the only 2 examples in captivity in the whole of Borneo. They are a severely endangered species, with only 15-30 left in the whole world. I can't say i was too impressed with their enclosure or their conditions... :-(
This afternoon we spent a bit more time measuring up, sawing wood and hammering nails into our new orangutan "goalpost". Well that's what they look like at the moment I reckon - we just need a net and we're in business!
Most of the orangutans were already loitering at the feeding platform so when we swept that we had to keep one eye on the slippery decking and the other on Doggy & co.
I had my first leech there too. The little blood sucker managed to get his mouth onto one of my fingers while i was walking back from the platform. A few carefully aimed flicks and he was back into the bushes with no lasting harm done.
Only Pat and Eyos were keeping us company at "The Office" cage today. 
It's called "The Office" because after a tree smashed the roof of a brick building a couple of years ago, Dusain simply moved his desk inside a disused holding cage! Ever since then, the wild orangutans are free to wander up and watch the caged humans - an ironic role reversal! These pictures were taken by the last group a couple of weeks back when it was a bit sunnier and Dusain was here to pose...After that we were free to go back and watch the Orangutans at the feeding platform with the tourists. I could never get bored of doing that! A bit overcast there today, which makes taking sharp photos difficult in the poor light - i hope you can make them out ok...
We also bumped into a guy called Jack there again too. He is another Travellers volunteer - we first met him at our Sepilok welcome party and he is teaching science and maths at a local primary school. Elis was chatting with him for a while so on the way back he decided to show him around the orangutan Indoor Nursery and also take him down to the Sumatran Rhino enclosure. I hadn't been there yet so i tagged along too and we saw the only 2 examples in captivity in the whole of Borneo. They are a severely endangered species, with only 15-30 left in the whole world. I can't say i was too impressed with their enclosure or their conditions... :-(
This afternoon we spent a bit more time measuring up, sawing wood and hammering nails into our new orangutan "goalpost". Well that's what they look like at the moment I reckon - we just need a net and we're in business!// posted by storri @ 10:52 am 
