Caving in Borneo

One of the things I love to do is go exploring in caves. They are so dark and mysterious, a little dangerous, and you never know what cool formation you're going to see next. I've spent the past week or so checking out some of the cool caves here in Borneo. They are some of the biggest and most impressive caves in the world!

The Fairy Cave, where Fairies live, near Kuching

At Mulu National Park, I met a few fellow travelers and we did some 'adventure caving'. We hiked, climbed, jumped over crevices and hung by ropes to explore the beauty of the Stonehorse cave. It was amazing!

No one fell in a hole, we survived!
Also, don't we kind of look like a band? I tried to convince the guys we should totally be a band just based on this pic alone, but they didn't go for it.

One of the most famous caves in Mulu is the Deer Cave. It is an absolutely huge cave where 3 million bats make their home. At dusk, all of the bats make a huge exodus to go out hunting for insects. They snake and curve in a long dragon like line as they make their way out, and they keep it up for over an hour! My neck was hurting from staring up at them for so long!

The Deer Cave entrance

From a certain angle, the cave opening looks just like Abraham Lincoln!

Bats inside the cave

The mass exodus! How many bats do you think are in that stream?!

I also went to the Lang Cave, which was just filled with stalactites and stalagmites and amazingly cool formations that made me feel like I was on some weird alien planet.

We also went to check out the Clearwater cave which had a river running through it. To get there, we had to take a ride down the river in a traditional long boat which was really fun.

Top contender for best selfie ever lol. There are raindrops going in my eyes, hence the squint.
But Leon and Steve both look hilarious!

The river inside Clearwater cave

I also got to check out two caves near Sepilok. The Batu Tulug cave, where 500 years ago, Borneo people used to bury their dead in carved wooden coffins. This ancient cemetery cave is on the side of a sheer cliff, so it's kind of a mystery and a huge feat that they would have lugged those coffins up there and put them in a cave!

A few of the wooden coffins on a platform in the cave

Many of the coffins were adorned with animal head carvings

So I think this sign said something about not going any further... but I wanted to climb to the top!
I felt so badass as I hopped over and kept going! Anarchy! Haha :)

The view from the top of the coffin cave mountain was worth it!

The Gomantong Cave was the grossest cave I've ever seen! I mean, it was still super cool, but there were cockroaches everywhere, literally everywhere. I could her them crunching under my feet as I walked and they were covering all the walls. The amount of bat poop was unbelievable... the whole bottom of the cave was a giant mountain of bat poo! This cave is known as a harvesting area for the nests of swiftlest that live there. Apparently the saliva that these birds use to stick their nests to the cave walls is a delicacy in China, and can fetch over $4000 a kilo! The harvesters go up on 100 m tall ladders made of bamboo and rope to get the nests. Sketchy!! And they live in the cave during harvesting season. UGH the cockroaches must crawl all over them at night... EEEKKKKK!!! Worst. Job. Ever.

Entrance to the Gomantong Cave

The bugs and cockroaches have formed some sort of a creepy happy face on the cave wall

Even if I was about to fall to my death, I'm not sure if I would grab a hold of this railing!

Walkway slowly dissolving into bat poo, and cockroaches crunching under my feet!

Saw this little guy living in a cave wall hole

They call this centipede the 'Hairy Mary'.
It can be up to 6 inches long, and it is so poisonous if it bites you you can die!!!

Doesn't this bird nest look delicious?

The bird nest harvesters live in these little huts in the cave

It's actually pretty cute, other than the cockroaches all over the place, eeeekkkk!

Matang Wildlife Sanctuary Part 2: I Have a Gibbon, and she's Spectacular

I was really lucky to be given a special job, working with a Gibbon named Rosie. Rosie had been a pet living in someone's home for the past 15 years, but had been given to the sanctuary when she bit one of her owners. The staff noticed that she had become really stressed being away from regular human contact and had started doing lots of repetitive movements and plucking out a lot of her hair. So I was given the job of keeping Rosie company for an hour a day to ease her separation anxiety. It turns out that she was just the sweetest little thing ever. She would put her hand out whenever she saw me, and would even rest her hand on my hip. She would start off with an arm scratch for a few minutes, but when she was ready, she’d switch positions and sit with her back to me for her back scratch. She would make these little cooing noises the whole time so I knew she loved it. My time I spent with Rosie was my favourite. It was so calming and special to be able to make that connection with an animal that is so similar to us.

Rosie is eating some seeds out of my hand!

Rosie loves to have her arm scratched

We hold hands a lot

But the fact that Rosie was a pet is actually pretty alarming. The main reason that there are so many primates living at the wildlife sanctuary is that most of them were taken when they were just tiny babies to be sold as pets, used as attractions for photo opportunities, or in shows where they were made to perform. The sad fact is that 90% of these animals die before the age of 3. The ones that do survive become stronger than their trainers or owners between the age of 5-10 depending on the species, and then are likely to attack or cause too much of a problem and are either killed or surrendered to a place like Matang. Please don’t ever have a monkey as a pet, it just doesn’t make sense!

This little orangutan came in to the center while I was there. The person who reported it said fishermen found it floating in a river. But when the vet holding him examined him, he was found to be severely underweight and malnourished and was actually way older than anyone expected from his size. We weren't sure what really happened to him, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.  

Even though it seemed that Rosie was treated fairly well in her previous home, there were some other animals living at the center who just had terrible stories. The most shocking was Nora. She was a lovely Macaque who literally came from a horror story. In her previous home, the owner had several monkeys because he said he liked to watch them "play". When staff went in to investigate, they noticed no food for the animals, but piles of bones on the floor. They soon realized that he purposefully hadn’t been feeding them, thus forcing them to "play" a.k.a. fight to the death so they could eat each other because they had nothing else to eat. The sicko actually liked to watch. There sure are some crazies out there.

This is Nora, she is now part of a happy family at Matang. She lives with her partner Bob and they have 3 kids...
you can see little Jones in the background

One of our Orangutans came from a zoo where the keepers used to give her cigarettes to smoke because people thought a smoking Orangutan was so funny. In one day they gave her 220 cigarettes, think about that, 220 cigarettes in ONE day! The sad thing is, that would only happen on a typical weekend when there would be tons of people lined up to get a picture of her smoking. Then on the weekdays, with fewer people to impress, she would barely be given any. I'm not a smoker but I can imagine the withdrawals would be terrible! The good news is that since coming to Matang, she is now smoke free.

Bananas, not cigarettes!

The rehabilitation and release of primates is not simple at all, especially for animals that have been taken as babies and fed their entire lives by humans. They become so used to being around us and being provided with food that they basically lose the ability to be proper Orangutans. As much as I would like it, I could never take one out to the jungle, swing around and show it where all the fruit trees are and what time of year they would ripen. Only an Orangutan can teach an Orangutan how to be an Orangutan, and if they don’t learn those skills growing up from their mom in a natural habitat, a successful rehabilitation and release is very unlikely. Releasing an Orangutan that has lived all its life with humans would be like putting one of us in the middle of the jungle and saying ok, go forth and prosper. We just wouldn’t have the skills to survive because no one has ever taught us how to live in the jungle and we’d probably die instantly. Some of the younger Orangutans were being taught jungle skills with older Orangutans and will likely be released in the future, but that process takes many years. In the meantime it is good to know that the animals living at Matang are deeply cared for and are given the best life possible under the circumstances.

So the whole experience was amazing, if a little bittersweet. What an incredible experience to learn about and be so close to these beautiful, intelligent creatures and participate in their care. At the same time, it’s sad to know how humans treat them in general, and that so many will never get to experience the life they were meant to lead, swinging freely from tree to tree in the Borneo jungle wilderness.

There are few simple things we can all do to help. To help the Orangutan, don’t support these animals as pets, don’t support their use in the entertainment industry (even when taking pictures with a cute baby monkey on vacation – think about where it came from and where it will be in a few years!), and limit your use of products with palm oil to help stop habitat destruction.

Matang Wildlife Sanctuary Part 1: That Time we Wrangled Some Crocs

The Matang Wildlife Sanctuary

I came to Borneo to volunteer at the Matang Wildlife Sanctuary, a rehabilitation center in Matang National Park which focuses on conservation of one of Borneo's iconic species, the Orangutan. Truth be told, I didn’t know too much about Orangutans before I came here. But of course I found out that they are fascinating creatures, one of the top 3 most intelligent creatures on the planet and our closest living relative next to the chimpanzee. Orangutans are only found in 2 places in the world, Borneo and Sumatra. Unfortunately, they are threatened by habitat loss as most of Borneo’s natural jungle has been logged and turned into palm oil plantations. There are about 40 000 Orangutans surviving in Borneo today, give or take, but it has been estimated that within 100 years their population will likely drop to around 1000 - those that are able to hang on in reserves and National Parks. That is a bit depressing, but, at least I had the power to make life better for the few Orangutans living at the Matang Wildlife Sanctuary just north of the city of Kuching, Malaysia.

One of the young Orangutans living at the sanctuary, Alie

On our first day, we received our schedules, which told us which animals we would be working with each day. In addition to Orangutans, the center also houses quite a few Sun bears, Macaques, Gibbons and many other rare animals. I have never worked with primates or really any mammals before, so I was really excited to get started! But at the bottom of the schedule, I noticed a little sentence that said… schedule may change due to unexpected circumstances.

Well, let me tell you we got that first unexpected circumstance on the afternoon of the first day! It turns out that overnight a tree in the crocodile enclosure had fallen over, and landed directly on the door that separated the regular Borneo crocodiles from the endangered species crocs in the next enclosure. The regular crocs had all escaped and made their way into the endangered species area. Not good, as the regular crocs would surely try to eat the endangered species, or at least fight them to the death. So, our job as first day volunteers was to help the staff move the crocs back into their rightful pen. We all stood back at first, watching Dom and the other staff expertly jump on, tie up the arms and legs and cover the faces of the crocs with burlap sacks. The crocs hated this though, and each one would writhe and fight until either they gave up, or they broke free and tried to attack anything and everything in their close proximity. This didn’t seem to phase Dom and his team though, and they just kept on moving and restraining the escapees.

The burlap sack going over the head is quite a tricky feat with all those teeth in the way!

One of the staff at the center restraining the croc, and the vet (the lady) is keeping a watchful eye on the goings on.

There were about 15 crocs that had to be moved in total. After a few had been done by the staff, they called in the volunteers. At first they only asked the guys. But then Stacey, Jacqui and I were like um, hello, we want to carry a croc too!! So they told us to come over. We bent down and picked up a croc cautiously, feeling the scaly smooth skin of its belly. We felt like badass crocodile hunters as we helped carry the scaly beast back to its home. We got over the little concrete barrier between the two pens, when all of a sudden we heard a loud growling and rustling to our left. A nearby croc had broken free from his restraints! He seemed to be all wide open mouth and giant pointy teeth as he rushed towards at top speed. Yes crocs can run fast!  Just as he was about to bite our legs off, we dropped the croc we were holding into a little pond (sorry dude) and bolted back across the concrete gate of safety. My heart was pounding, but we managed to escape with our limbs intact.

These crocs are just waiting to be untied in their pen when all of them have been moved back.

Most of the days were a little less gut wrenching than that first day. We usually did husbandry in the morning, which basically meant cleaning up poo, everyone's favourite job (insert sarcasm font here), and also feeding the animals. It is pretty cool to watch an Orangutan find and eat some fruit you hid for him in a tree! Then in the afternoon we would do enrichment. Enrichment was really fun. We basically gave the animals some activities to keep their minds lively and give them something entertaining to do to pass the time. It usually involved a tricky task to get some delicious food. But delicious to primates is not always the same as it is to humans. For example, a water bottle filled with meal worms could keep a Gibbon occupied for hours! Some other enrichment things seemed a little more appetizing, like the cardboard box filled with leaves smeared with peanut butter and blueberry jam we gave to the Sun Bears… I could go for that if I was pretty hungry! Every once in a while we helped out with a few other interesting tasks, like concreting a new section of floor, or lugging cages around in the jungle. We were busy, and it was hard work at times, but we had a great time.

Me and Avi preparing the food for the Orangutans

Doris getting some food that we put out for her!

Aman eating a delicious bean

While the animals ate outside, we cleaned up the poo in the night dens.

Matt H, Matt A and Bron with the enrichment they made for the Orangutans - the burlap is filled with delicious treats like bananas, peanut butter and sunflower seeds.

Shirley discovering her treats

The Sun Bear's night den filled with leaves with peanut butter and jam

Sun Bears devouring their treats

Me and Avi preparing some bamboo sticks to be filled with treats for enrichment

We were tending to the papaya trees on the farm in a downpour and got a bit muddy!

Borneo Wildlife is so Rad

I've only been in Borneo for 2 days, but it's already a high contender for my favourite place on earth! The wildlife here is out of control cool. So far I've visited 2 national parks: Semmengoh and Bako, and I've seen this:

An orangutan drinking coconut water

A grandma orangutan and a 6 year old baby

This guy flying through the air like an acrobat

This lady just watching the action calmly from above

While this one clearly has no shame and shows it all off!

This one year old baby clings to mom

The spiders are as large as my hand, eeek!

Fiddler crabs patrolling their holes

This beautiful plant eats bugs, there was an entire butterfly inside *tears*

Jeez trees could you please grow some more roots? There aren't enough here on this hiking trail! 

Proboscis monkeys!!!!!

Gives new meaning to the word dickface.

But the baby Proboscis monkeys are pretty darn cute!

Hi cutie!

A Macaque guards the pathway