The Great Projects volunteer coordinator Jess is currently lending a hand to The Great Orangutan Project's team. We caught up with her to find out what's underway at the sanctuary and what recent volunteers have been up to:
"After a long hiatus, it has been fantastic to welcome back the volunteers to The Great Orangutan Project at Matang Wildlife Centre, where both the team and animals are very grateful to have the extra support once again.
With more hands-on-deck helping to clean the animal enclosures and prepare the food, there was more time to create interesting enrichment for the non-releasable orangutans and get stuck into some bigger projects around the centre. The orangutans were mesmerised by the different coloured chalk drawings around their enclosures and even had a go at their own with the chalk pieces we left hidden for them to find!
Over the past two weeks, the volunteers worked hard renovating the sun bear’s night dens and collecting lots of sensory enrichment from the forest, including rotten logs, termite mounds and composted leaves to encourage digging and foraging in the sun bears. Our next big project will focus on building some more climbing structures for both the orangutans and the sun bears.
In their spare time, the volunteers were taken on a night walk around the forest to see what wonders they could see. They were lucky enough to come across a Western tarsier, alongside spotting pitcher plants, several different species of frogs, a Bornean angel-headed lizard and some bioluminescent mushrooms!
Their time finished with a trip to Semenggoh Nature Reserve to observe the semi-wild orangutans, during which they spotted a mum with her newborn baby!"
There's a lot to do at the sanctuary, and the team can always benefit from more hands! So, if you've dreamt of volunteering with orangutans, now is the time, as the project is currently 10% off if you join between 5th June 2022 and 19th July 2022! Find out more by heading over to The Great Orangutan Project page.
