ORANG UTAN SHANGRI LA

[Guest guest]

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Features/20051220150052/Article\

/indexb_html

*COVER STORY*: Shangri-La for orang utans

JEREMY MAHADEVAN <features

 

*Dec 21:*

------------------------------

*Five-star resorts are providing all sorts of amenities these days to

outdo one another. Broadband connections, jacuzzis, spa treatments and, as

JEREMY MAHADEVAN found out recently at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort, orang

utans too.*

 

IT'S a curse, being cute. It's especially bad when you're fluffy too, which

makes the plight of young Mowgli all the more affecting. The poor fellow's

hair suffers from a permanent Van der Graaff Generator effect, his deep

brown eyes mesmerise when they aren't firmly fixed on the ground, and he

clings tightly to his adopted father as though hoping to climb up a shirt

sleeve and escape the outside world. He is entirely adorable, which makes

him the centre of much cooing and petting when he receives a rare set of

visitors at his abode in the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort in Kota Kinabalu.

Yes, this little one lives at the Shangri-La. He's also an orang utan.

 

The Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort is almost a mirror of every other beachside

" golf for daddy/spa for mummy " establishment, except that it happens to

house a 25-hectare nature reserve — home to porcupines, mousedeer, sambar

deer, civet cats, bear cats, six snake species, 67 bird species and, of

course, orang utans.

 

The orang utans are, in fact, temporary tenants — they're sent to the Rasa

Ria Resort by Sabah Wildlife Department officials, who pick them up after a

few years for transfer to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary. Most of the

orang utans that pass through the Shangri-La's reserve are orphans, either

found wandering through plantations or kept as pets by villagers. Tony Muni,

one of the rangers in charge of the reserve, knows how demanding it can be

to care for these tiny apes.

 

" When Mowgli arrived, he was only three months old, " Tony recounts. " He was

totally bald. We had to stay back and look after him overnight, change his

diapers and make sure he was fed on time. It's exactly like looking after a

human baby. "

 

Since the Shangri-La first started taking in these baby orang utans in 1996,

they've seen 15 come and go. They currently house six juveniles between the

ages of two and four, who will remain at the reserve until they're around

six. Then they will be transferred to Sepilok for up to two years, with the

eventual aim of being released to the wild. Their time at the resort, while

cushy as far as the modern orang utan's life goes, is far from a holiday.

 

They may be free from logging, poaching and over-eager villagers, but they

still have to undergo ape school, in the form of a training regime designed

to equip them with essential skills for life in the wide green yonder. Among

other things, they're taught to climb, find food, fend for themselves and

handle the adverse attention of rivals (in the nature reserve, these come in

the form of Bornean long-tailed macaques).

 

After 15 years of caring for these animals, the latest development in

Shangri-La's vision — and the reason Mowgli recently received a rare

hands-on visit from outsiders — is the opening of the queerly named Nature

Interpretation Centre. This is a small complex comprising a garden, briefing

hall, reference library, animal food preparation kitchen, veterinary clinic,

nursery, viewing and feeding platforms and an observation tower.

 

The existence of this facility goes a short way towards providing an answer

to that perennial question — " what's the catch? "

 

Shangri-La must have decided to expend time and effort on these animals for

a reason beyond pure altruism. At the Interpretation Centre, resort guests

can learn about the local flora and fauna, something which is being

presented as a unique selling point for the establishment.

 

So, for example, if you were staying at the resort, you could come for the

nightly deer-spotting sessions, where you're allowed to sit behind a barrier

in the Nocturnal Area, beyond which a heap of food is left in the hope that

the reserve's deer population will prove receptive. Or you could turn up for

one of the twice-daily orang utan feedings, and have a guide lead you a

short distance into the reserve, to witness the little great apes being fed.

 

The clinic, nursery and kitchen are actually fronted by large glass windows,

allowing visitors to observe the goings-on within. During the launch of the

centre, the clinic was dealing with two patients; one being Mowgli, which

was suffering from diarrhoea, and the other a bush-crested hornbill that had

its wings clipped and had been kept as a pet.

 

They're cared for by the resort's trained staff and by a Wildlife Department

veterinarian based in Kota Kinabalu, who is on call throughout the day.

 

While all these big windows and opportunities for voyeurism might seem a

little disturbing at first, it soon becomes clear that the welfare of the

animals is the first priority, so while looking is encouraged (and, to be

fair, it probably makes no difference to most animals), actual contact is

almost entirely avoided. The guest observation routines are built around the

animals' habits, and not the other way around.

 

It might be easy to scoff and cite the profit motive, but while the

Shangri-La undeniably gains from its association with Sabah's sumptuous

natural diversity, the Wildlife Department, and the animals, need all the

help they can get.