In Rehab

The proboscis monkey at first glance seems to be a science experiment gone wrong where someone has spliced Jimmy Durante's DNA with that of a koala bear. After you get used to the big schnauz they actually look kind of cute. Very pretty reddish fur with salt and pepper arms and legs.

Only the alpha male has the big proboscis - the bachelor males have smaller ones and the females have cute upturned pointy ones. No one is sure what purpose it serves but it's used to puff up and posture with when the alpha is challenged by a young monkey looking for luv from one othe alpha's off-limits females.The babies have very dark heads and blue faces until a few months old. They look strikingly like a Dr. Seuss "Who," from Whoville.

The Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary was set up by a sympathetic Chinese oil palm plantation owner who found the monkeys pilfering his workers' breakfast during a particularity bad drought. Land was set aside as a reserve and a visitors centre with walkways and feeding platforms were built. There are two feedings a day in two different locations. I'm told that the cucumber and pancake (no sugar added - this would kill the good bacteria in their gut) they get is just "extra" and that they can for the most part survive on what the land offers. Their main food is mangrove leaves. These are poisonous but the monkeys have a complex stomach system - similar to a camel - that can handle the digestion slowly. The result, especially in the alpha males, is a big pot belly from gas. The can also regurgitate and have leftovers! When the food was placed on the first platform the bachelors immediately ran over and started gorging. Alpha male sauntered over sat down and the young guys just backed right off and timidly grabbed their food when the big guy turned his head.

Mangroves are being displaced by plantations for all that palm oil that goes into packaged food. Without mangroves there can be no proboscis monkeys. I like places like this where the people are in the "cage" and the animals have free range. There are no fences per say but the the edge of the protected mangrove keeps them from wandering.

At the second feeding site there were four army dudes in camo fatigues with AK47 type machine guns. My guide told me that they are at all the tourists sites now. These guys were smiling and laughing and taking each other pics with the the cheeky silver langur monkeys that showed up at feeding. Adults are silvery black, babies are golden!

Currently the canadian government is advising against travel to east Sabah but I decided to come because precisely because the military is out and about. Tourism is a serious year round business here so I'm confident in their caution. I decided the not to do diving though on this side as the travel agent I was using was not doing bookings at the resort I was most interested in. Best to listen to the locals.

After a lunch stop we headed to Sepilock Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre for the afternoon feeding. This place has been around since the late 50's. They take in orphans and injured Orangutans, love them, nurture them, wean then and release them. That is if/when they are ready to be independent. Was thrilled to have one just walk by on the walkway railing nonchalantly just as we got to the "Junior Outdoor Playground." I feel a real kinship to the ginger ape!

At the afternoon feeding it was the macaques who stole the show. The orangs cruised in all mellow and relaxed and hung out for a bit munching slowly on bananas and cantaloupe. Three of them huddled closely together and turned their backs on the masses of photographers as if in council. Then the Macaques all snuck in and carefully snatched and grabbed the the outward lying fruit and then worked their way in. The orangs didn't give them the time of day even when one especially brave youth stuck his hand in between the two biggest and seemed to pull three bananas out of their butts!

The Rainforest Forest Discovery Centre down the road was our next stop. By the way this was not supposed to be a private tour but since its shoulder season and I'm solo I somehow ended up with a guide and driver and a van of my own. I have a female guide  (surprised) with very sharp eyes (not surprised.) On our canopy walk she spotted a freaky woodpecker and two types of hornbills for me. Hornbills are prehistoric looking.

Ended the day with a steamy night walk back at Sepilock. Rehab. Saw creepy things by flashlight. Spiders, angle headed razor back lizard thingy, pit vipers big and small, a frog that said "what", a red headed kingfisher and giant red flying squirrels.

Awesome day!