Sunday, March 06, 2016

Kiki Roams - Danum Valley Conservation Area, Malaysia: Canopy Walk and More Orangutans

Danum Valley Conservation Area

Today we adventured on the canopy treetop walk, some 50-60 meters above ground.

Essentially, it’s a series of suspension bridges and small circular platforms attached from one tree to another that you can walk across and survey the jungle below.

It’s also a great spot for avid birdwatchers (which I am not) as there are supposedly some really good sightings.

You should definitely  not drink any alcohol before walking on the suspension bridge – it already feels like you hit the vodka bottle pretty hard as you try to stabilize yourself on the bridge (it’s worse if others are walking on it with you).

I don’t think you’ll fall over into the river, but it definitely feels like you might.

We were quite lucky on this bridge walk as we spotted a mommy orangutan with her baby.

The baby was very curious about our presence and a total show off when he realized we were looking at him.

He showed us his ability to stretch off tree branches, how he could leap from one branch to another, and of course, displaying his private monkey parts.

The mommy orangutan kept trying to grab him and bring him further into the tree canopy where he would be safely hidden but he was having none of this.

Eventually, she broke a leafy tree branch and just covered him with it.

Sadly, they were eating tree bark as there were not many fruits available for them to eat.

Orangutans are not generally tree bark or leaf eaters – they prefer fruits.

Our guide told us that it had been quite dry over the last few months with little rain and so the trees weren’t producing many, if any, fruits.

The jungle was quite misty in the early hours and the mist continued to gather the further we went into the jungle.

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