Where
to Go
Gunung Leuser National Park
Bukit Lawang
Tangkahan
Lake Toba
Berastagi
Mt. Sibayak
volcano
Mt. Sinabung
volcano
Sipisopiso
Waterfall
Tongging
Ketembe
Lake Kawar
Medan
What
to Do
Jungle
Trekking
Elephant
Trekking
White-Water
Rafting
River-Tubing
Volcano
Climbing
Bohorok
Orangutan Centre
Maimoon Palace
What
to Know
About "Hello
Mister Travel"
Introduction
to Sumatra
Topography
History
Getting to Sumatra
Getting Around Sumatra
Terms & Conditions
Accommodation
Bukit Lawang
Tangkahan
Berastagi
Tongging
Tuk Tuk
Ketembe
The Tours
Bukit Lawang Short Stay
The Jungle Trail
The Toba Trail
The North Sumatran Trail
Bohorok Orangutan Centre
It may seem an odd and short-sighted idea to have an orangutan as a pet, since they grow up to be immensely large, incredibly strong and not a little cantankerous, but that is exactly what many people with too much money and too few brain cells decide to do. Abducted from their mothers at an early age, when the cuddly babies stop being cute, reach sulky-teenager-age and stop impressing the Jones’s they are unceremoniously dumped.
The centre was opened by a couple of Swiss zoologists in 1973 and was funded by the WWF and the Frankfurt Zoological Society before being taken over by the Indonesian government in 1980. The idea was to rehabilitate these abandoned and malnourished apes by reintroducing them to their natural habitat and diets; since then over 200 have been successfully released into the wild.
The centre has received no funding for over twenty five years and relies on the money it charges from visitor permits and donations (please see the Sumatran Orangutan Society website for more information about donations). Sadly, for many reasons, the centre no longer rehabilitates these creatures and has had to close its doors to newcomers. This is partly because the centre doesn’t meet the modern day requirements for such rehabilitation status, partly due to the area having reached population saturation and also to prevent diseases being passed on to wild orangutans.
However, the centre continues to care for the many remaining inhabitants of the forest on diminishing resources and it is a wonderful experience to see these endangered species up close and in their natural environment. Twice a day orangutans emerge from the depths of the jungle and head for a feeding platform high up a hill above the centre, where tourists similarly emerge from Bukit Lawang to witness the apes devour bananas and milk and be inspected themselves. One does have to wonder who’s doing the spectating…
This is a unique experience, but if the idea of an organised meeting of simians does not appeal then it’s possible to organise a walk into the surrounding jungle and meet them in a less predictable fashion.
