Borneo's Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

The Orangutan, aka the “man of the forest,” is becoming “homeless” at an alarming rate! These amazingly gentle red apes are native to only Borneo and its neighboring Sumatra island. Similar to Pygmy elephants, their population is in serious decline due to human deforestation. We had the opportunity to see a few wild orangutans living happily in the untouched primary forest along the Kinabatangan River… and a much larger number living at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Sepilok is a home for rescued orangutans: for instance, babies who were captured and kept as pets illegally (a tragically lucrative practice, which usually results in the killing of the mother orangutan, who fights to the death to protect her child).
We are Lan & Eric, two front-line clinicians who chose to hit "pause" on our medical careers to live out our dream of traveling all seven continents. Our videos coincide with our photo-journal, explorerswithoutborders.com/, where we have tried to record the many lessons, perspectives and inspiration we have found along the way.