Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sabah Trip

Last week I was travelling to Sandakan and Tawau for a business trip. During my trip, I was lucky to had opportunity to visits Sepilok, one of the biggest 'Orang Utan' territory.

The Orangutan are the two species of great apes known for their intelligence, long arms and reddish-brown hair. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, though fossils have been found in Java, Vietnam and China. They are the only surviving species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae (which also includes the extinct genera Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus). Their name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan, meaning "person of the forest".

Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees. Every night they fashion nests, in which they sleep, from branches and foliage. They are more solitary than the other apes, with males and females generally coming together only to mate. Mothers stay with their babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years. There is significant sexual dimorphism between females and males: females can grow to around 4 ft 2 in or 127 centimetres and weigh around 100 lbs or 45 kg, while fully mature males can reach 5 ft 9 in or 175 centimetres in height and weigh over 260 lbs or 118 kg.[7] Fully mature males can be distinguished by their prominent cheek flanges and longer hair.

I really recommended Sepilok to be one of your visiting place when you come for holiday to Sabah.

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