What else is there to do?

This is Sarawak 's oldest forest reserve constituted in 1920. It's some 20km south of Kuching and covers some 653 hectared of primary lowland forest (mixed dipterocarp) and parts of old secondary forests with patches of kerangas (heath forest). Apart from the rehabilitation centre, there is a Botanical Research Centre (BRC) , an arboretum and nature trails that snakes its way round the site allocated for research and also for ex-situ conservation of genetic pool of Sarawak 's flora. The Arboretum was established in 1951 to preserve a small area of natural primary lowland forest. It covers an area of approximately 14 hectares and is one of the few least disturbed lowland dipterocarp forests near the city. Here there are a count of 2,500 tree species from 60 plant families and ongoing research is in progress here still.

Of many species that's endemic to Borneo or Sarawak , there is a palm named Areca Ahmadeii that is endemic to Semengoh Reserve Park! For botanists, there are a number of nature trails namely; Jalan Bawah, Jalan Menara, Jalan Selatan, Jalan Tengah and Jalan Utaraur to whet your appetite. These trails are fairly short, the longest taking about 30 minutes (Jalan Selatan). Bird watchers wont be disappointed on these trails either, a number of resident and also migrating birds can be found here.. look out especially at clearings.

 

What about the Orang Utans and how can we help them?

10,000 years ago, orang utans were found throughout Southeast Asia ranging all the way into Laos and southern China . Their populations probably numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Today, these harmless creatures are found only in Sumatra and Borneo . Even with the slight geographical differences between the2 islands, there are 2 sub-species of orang utans. The Sumatran orang utan have a narrower face and longer beard than the Borneo relatives and the Bornean male are darker in colour with wider cheek pads.

In the mid 1800's explorers like Edgar Wallace, Odoardo Beccari and William Hornaday spent a great deal of time in the Bornean jungle collecting fauna and flora from the rich land. Hunting, skinning, bottling and classifying their collections to be sent back to the museums they are affiliated with or sold to buyers around the world hungry for collections for their museums. An extract from The Malay Archipelago; Russell Edgar Wallace of his travels in Borneo and the man who created Wallace's Line, 'Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet long, raised high above the ground on posts, with a wide verandah and still wider platform of bamboo in front of it. Almost all the people, however, were away on some excursion after edible birds'- nests or bees'-wax, and there only remained in the house two or three old men and women with a lot of children. The mountain or hill was close by, covered with a complete forest of fruit-trees, among which the Durian and Mangusteen were very abundant; but the fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a little here and there.' On his hunt for an Orang Utan he writes ,'On the fourth day, however, we found a Mias feeding on a very lofty Durian tree, and succeeded in killing it, after eight shots. Unfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging by its hands, and we were obliged to leave it and return home, as it was several miles off. As I felt pretty sure it would fall during the night, I returned to the place early the next morning, and found it on the ground beneath the tree. To my astonishment and pleasure, it appeared to be a different kind from any I had yet seen; for although a full-grown male, by its fully developed teeth and very large canines, it had no sign of the lateral protuberance on the face, and was about one-tenth smaller in all its dimensions than the other adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to be broader than in the larger species, a character distinguishing the Simia morio of Professor Owen, which he had described from the cranium of a female specimen. As it was too far to carry the animal home, I set to work and skinned the body on the spot, leaving the head, hands, and feet attached, to be finished at home. This specimen is now in the British Museum .'

Edgar Wallace as with other naturalists in the 1800's believed that they had seen or caught subspecies of orangutans or Mias as the local natives, the Dyaks called them in Sarawak . That may have been true then but today there are only 2 subspecies. Has hunting and forest destruction reduced the orangutans to only 2 sub species or were the early naturalists mistaken? As Odoardo Beccari, a noted botanist of 1800's concluded that he found that all his specimens collected on the Mias, no one mias was perfectly alike from the next. He states,' It is possible in the remote past the Mias Tjaping and the Mias Kassa ( these were various types of orangutan named by the locals and thought to be distinct subspecies)were two quite distinct species, perhaps having their origin in separate regions, and only coming into contact on the same area. At present , however, it seems hardly that the two races should remain distinct, for individuals of each are found promiscuously in the same locality, and even on the same tree'.

more on semengoh and the orang utans...

Accommodation and Holiday Packages to Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre