Borneo Earth Expedition

Hello! Caitlin McGarrity from the Orangutan Care Team here!  In this Keeper Story, I wanted to highlight some of the ongoing conservation efforts for protecting wild orangutans in their natural habitat on the island of Borneo.  In July, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Borneo myself through my graduate school program Project Dragonfly.  I put my student cap on to learn all about ongoing research and conservation efforts aimed towards protecting the wide biodiversity there, including many primate species such as orangutans.   

Our group stayed at the Danau Girang Field Centre in the heart of the Kinabatangan region of the Malaysian state of Sabah.  The research students living there were very gracious to us and were excited for us to shadow them while working on their various projects.  Many of these involved surveying the surrounding area for environmental indicator species or tracking various species to determine their movement patterns and behavior.  The project which resonated with me the most was their reforestation project.  Partnering with the local community, Danau Girang Field Centre’s Regrow Borneo project manages botanical plots where they monitor the growth of newly planted trees for a forest corridor that will one day connect fragmented rainforest habitat space for native orangutans and other wildlife.  During one of our activities, we assisted research officer Amaziasizamoria Jumail with measuring the growth progress of trees in a five-year plot. 

Danau Girang Field Centre has done well partnering with their local community to make this possible.  They have built an amicable relationship with a neighboring palm oil plantation which sanctioned off part of their land for the reforestation project. Additionally, many local community members get involved in the tree planting process, which would be incredibly time consuming without their help.  My personal favorite thing that we did while on program in Sabah was participating in tree planting with them.  We planted a full plot of trees that are locally called Bongkol from the Nauclea genus, which is a favorite of orangutans as a nesting tree.  Deforestation is currently the biggest threat to the orangutan species’ survival, so as an orangutan keeper, this was especially meaningful to me to contribute to restoring some vital habitat space for them.  

Community based conservation is a core value of Project Dragonfly and part of what intrigued me to join the program.  I love seeing communities come together to protect something that is dually important to their ecosystem and culture. The work going on in Sabah sets a great precedent for this that we can all look to when making a difference in our own communities.   

Learn more about Danau Girang Field Centre and their Regrow Borneo Project here: Regrow Borneo – Danau Girang Field Centre. 

Caitlin M.
Orangutan Care Team