Day 52 - The Machete's Get Used

Just as we arrived at the centre this morning, Yokmil also decided to emerge from the forest. He sat in the wooden box that the babies normally swing out to, and decided to rock it furiously back and forth – we were half expecting it to break. Boney was standing there with a stick hitting the fence post to try and get Yokmil to back off, but he was standing his ground. He made a lot of loud kissing noises, which are apparently a warning sign to stay away. Ceria and Malim were also around, but kept a distance. It is amazing how Ceria tries to be dominant all the time, but is terrified as soon as someone bigger comes along.

Then we headed over with James and Elis to the Rainforest Discovery Centre for breakfast at the staff canteen there. We all travelled in the back of his truck, which was pretty amazing – the wind in our hair. It's such an illegal thing to do in Australia and the UK, so it felt quite rebellious. The dish Elis suggested had peanuts in it, so I got a different dish, which was yellow rice and a fried egg, with a spicy red sauce. This was accompanied by a little soup, prawn crackers, an iced coffee and a selection of local cakes.

Afterwards we headed to the Forest Edge resort and parked nearby on the side of the road. We were here to cut down some small banana trees to put in the outdoor cage for the babies, instead of the usual leaves. This was the perfect chance for April and Jack to try out their machetes, so they jumped into the bush with James. Some of the tree stalks were quite thick, but they are very watery, and the knife sliced through in one swift motion. We loaded them up in the back of the truck – some of them were quite long, so a lot of the leaves hung out over the side. Then we hopped back in on top of them for the short journey back to the centre. I felt like an orangutan making a nest as I crushed down the leaves to get in. When we arrived back at the centre we tried to prop the trees up in the cage, but we had orangutans on top and underneath that were eagerly pulling through any leaves or branches they could lay their hands on – so the mini forest we had built in the cage didn't last long.

Next we got to ride in the back of one of the cute mini-trucks as James drove us to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. We walked around the plant section for around an hour, and James was discussing the various medicinal purposes of some of them,

including one which he kept calling a 'lady plant' - because apparently it helps with some lady problem he wasn't comfortable discussing. We saw a few birds, including a red sunbird, but they aren't easy to capture on camera.

In the break we headed over to the cafe at Sepilok for our iced milo, which has become a regular treat, and there was a lot of commotion outside. Rosa was in a tree at the front of the Sun Bear Centre and had snatched a tourist's fancy camera. She had placed it high up on a tree branch and then decided to wander off and leave it there, but apparently she had been biting it, and bits were breaking off. It was quite an operation to get it down. One of the guys tried a long stick with a hook on the end, but it couldn't reach. So they tied another one to it and managed to dislodge the camera. It had lost its len extension, but luckily the owner had another one, and miraculously it still worked! We found out later he had put his camera down on a

bench - big mistake with fast, wandering hands about!

I then headed into the Sun Bear Centre. They were fairly quiet there today – both in terms of bears and tourists! But Jeremy was showing me them through the telescope – and today I got to see one high up in a tree. He kept moving around and eventually I got some decent shots of him, especially when he started cleaning himself. I also got to see a flying lizard, which was quite cool. Then one of the bears on the ground made a loud noise, which sounded like a barking, growling dog. Apparently they were play fighting – hate to think what real fighting sounds like. In the afternoon we got to crack out the water jet again to clean the big cage!

In the evening we headed out on a night trek at 7.30pm. Jeremy came with us as well, and we had a pretty successful run. It was really weird walking the same path we take every day to work, but in

the dark. The vines that hang down from the trees above our heads, which I have barely noticed before, seemed very creepy and sinister. We didn't have any luck seeing a slow loris in the car park area, which is where they normally hang out (although we did see a scorpion poking out of a tree) so we headed in towards the centre. First sight was Ceria – curled up and asleep on the balcony. He looks so innocent when we sleeps, we was dead to the world. On the opposite balcony there was another orangutan curled up on the top of the desk, snuggled in between the desk and the shelf above.

As we went to round the corner, there was a yellow and black mangrove snake blocking our path. James was trying to get it to follow his torchlight and move out of the way so we could sneak past (they are very poisonous), so we had quite a lot of time to observe it. It was about a metre long and very shiny. It stuck to the wall the whole way along, and was very slow moving, stopping to constantly smell its surroundings. When we thought there was enough space, Jeremy and I snuck past, but just as Steph went to go, the snake decided to coil back around to our direction, so James stopped her and they all went the long way around, while Jeremy and I stood perched silently on the balcony.

We walked along the boardwalk to the outdoor nursery, and along the way we saw numerous critters, including a tiny stick insect, worms (including one so small it was barely visible and one so large we actually thought it was a small snake), multiple frogs, three green pit vipers, a chameleon (or the back half of one anyway), a tree crab and spiders.

When we reached the outdoor nursery, we saw several more sleeping orangutans, including Matimus, who was snoozing in one corner on the ground. When we reached the climbing area there was an orangutan in the hammock, who woke up as soon as he saw the torchlight and started to climb towards us. We quickly realised it was Peanut! I never expected to get to see him again, so I was super excited! He was very curious, swinging from the ropes and watching us all intently. Then he decided he would climb down and extend an arm to us, as if to take him back inside. So we all kept our distance while James gently led him back to the great outdoors.

By now it was time to head back to the carpark, and as we approached, James suddenly started running, and I knew he had

seen a slow loris! We were quite far away, but his torch had picked up its eye reflection. We ran to the other side of the tree and Jeremy managed to spot him fairly quickly. At first we could just see his fluffy behind, but then he popped his head up and we could see his full face. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing this was – to see a slow loris in the wild. He was very docile, gently and tentatively stepping along the branches, griping on tightly with his long toes. Then he found some kind of bug to eat and was munching on that and also licking the tree sap. At one point, some kind of big ant landed on one of his feet, and he actually jumped a little. What a treasure. All in all it was an amazing evening.