When Around Orang Utans

Personal note: This post below is very encouraging.

For a while now I have been encouraging such guidelines and restrictions - long overdue at Camp Leakey, some refer to as an orangutan circus. If you visit orangutans anywhere in the wild and you see people behaving badly, please let us know and even send photos.

Especially if you visit Camp Leakey in central Borneo, where in the past one or more orangutans have become alcoholics from beer given to them by stupid tourists. You will know when you arrive at Camp Leakey as an adult orangutan will probably be washing its hands with soap, of all things, at the waters edge. So. How does a 'wild' orangutan get hold of soap?

At least one other orangutan has taken up smoking cigarettes; all this at a place I asked the Orangutan Foundation (OF) a year or more ago to introduce guidelines and restrictions which put the well being of orangutans first, not that there is no small danger to tourists from these habituated orangutans.

I got the feeling OF did not like my intervention and the tour operator they use (Discovery Initiatives) refused to reply to emails. As far as I know, nothing has changed, despite the Orangutan Foundation making a lot of money out of their tours which include Camp Leakey.

When Around Orang Utans

http://borneonaturetours.com/www/brl_orangutan_dosndonts.aspx


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