Day 2: Orangutan Visit – Tanjung Puting National Park

Day 2: We were up early as we had stayed in a lovely room at the Rimba Lodge the night before and the Proboscis monkeys were playing on our cabin roof at about 4:30 am. They will throw things at you if they so desire! Check them out here: https://animalia.bio/proboscis-monkey

The females are pretty cute with their tiny turned up nose. The males however have one of the biggest schnozes in the animal kingdom (other than elephants). They use their noses to make incredible sounds that echo through the forest like bull horns! These are interesting and curious monkeys and we enjoyed their antics in the trees above us. We also watched many of them swinging from the trees at the river’s edge while travelling down the river in our boat. They are funny and cute!

This is the warning poster at our cabin! With a verbal warning not to engage the monkeys and not to leave anything outside at night… the monkeys will take it! We especially liked the No Swimming…warning!

After a beautiful breakfast on the boat (courtesy of our cook Suri) we stopped at our second viewing area inside the park.

The rain had stopped and the paths were almost dry although most of the distance was covered by a beautiful boardwalk. As we had an easy walk to the ranger station over the board walk we saw a number of orangutans come out of the forest cover to greet Abul. They walked with us for quite a way to the feeding station while Abul filmed them with us. Unfortunately I can’t upload video here!

The playfulness of the youngsters and the vigilance of the moms was heartwarming. To see so many babies and pregnant mothers-to-be gave us hope that this species will survive for future generations to admire. It was such an honor and privilege to be able to see these magnificent creatures in the natural world. We are so grateful to Abul and his fellow rangers for caring for these orangutans when they were babies and for raising them to have babies of their own!