J on the Flip Side: 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.