On Friday we flew from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia , to Kuala Lampur then on to Medan , Indonesia
– on the island
of Sumatra . We had visited Sumatra
in 2010 and spent a little time with Ian Singleton of SOCP, Sumatran Orangutan
Conservation Programme. We were able to
meet up with Ian for dinner on our first night in Medan , and deliver some veterinary supplies
and medications being donated by Seneca Park Zoo, Kansas City Zoo and Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo. These items will be used
at SOCP’s orangutan rehabilitation center, Batu Mbelin. Ian updated us on various things such as
orangutan releases and law enforcement issues.
On Saturday we drove to Tangkahan and stayed at the Mega
Inn, an ecotourism site. We went to a
scheduled Sumatran elephant bath. We came
away with mixed feelings about this program.
When we arrived we were not very surprised to see barbed wire and
electric fence surrounding the elephants’ area…but we were surprised to see
that all of the elephants were chained.
We were told that the mahouts unchain the elephants twice per day to
walk them down a trail for their scheduled bath/swim in the river.
We met with the head of the tourism board in Tangkahan. He told us how the ecotourism that has been
happening in the area has really helped with the local economy. We’ll be able to share more details when we
have more time…
The next morning we took a hike through the rainforest along
rubber tree collection trails. The
amazing highlight of this hike was hearing wild Siamangs and white-handed gibbons
vocalizing for over an hour! We did not
see them but the calls alone were so cool to hear! We saw Thomas’s leaf monkeys and long-tailed
macaques.
We’ll send more updates when we can, need to load up in the
van shortly!
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