Orang Utan Island is located within the exotic, eco-friendly getaway of Bukit Merah Laketown Resort, a 7,000 acre freshwater lakeside haven in Semanggol, Perak. The Orang Utan Island itself, which was formerly known as Pulau Panjang, comprises a vast 35 acre area, 5 acres of which has been set aside as a research centre for these endangered primates.
Developed by renowned Malaysian property developer MK Land thanks to its founder,YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Hj. Mustapha Kamal, the island, which opened in 2000, is the first of its kind in the world, and designed to resemble the orang utan’s natural rainforest habitat as much as possible. As such, its red-haired residents are able to roam freely within their lush, jungle environment while visitors view them from safe, enclosed spaces built within a dedicated viewing area.
It was within the nurturing borders of this island that the Orang Utan Island Research and Development Programme was born in an effort to study, breed, monitor, train and rehabilitate the increasingly endangered orang utan.
Led by Dr. Sabapathy Dharmalingam, the research center’s veterinary service manager, the island’s medical and research team has been dedicating their full resources to caring for, breeding, monitoring, training and rehabilitating the primates there in an effort to increase the population of healthy orang utans in the wild.
The island also serves as a valuable educational tool for reaching out to people who may know nothing about the crisis the orang utans are facing, and how close they are to becoming extinct. Upon their visit to the island, visitors are exposed to all aspects of the orang utan’s existence, including how they behave, eat, breed and socialise, and the dangers they face.
Having started with just 3 orang utans in 1999, the island’s primate population has grown to 23, 12 of which were born on the island itself. The centre’s rehabilitation programme focuses on teaching the orang utans the essential skills they need to survive in the wild, such as foraging for food, nest building, tree climbing and socialising, in anticipation for their eventual release into their natural habitat.
find the original here
0 comments:
Post a Comment