KUCHING: Located about 25 kilometres away from Kuching City, lies a sanctuary for orang utan called the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (SWC).
The centre offers visitors a great place to enjoy nature and also to raise awareness on preserving the habitats of orang utan.
According to a spokesperson here, the park itself offers visitors the opportunity to feed the orang utans.
“When people visit the SWC, they will get to feed the orang utans and through that, they will learn to care for their habitat.
“Since its establishment in 1975, SWC has successfully released 11 orang utans, along with 24 offspring to date,” said the spokesperson.
The centre is also considered a tourist attraction spot as it attracts both local and foreign tourists.
“The number of visitors that come to the centre every year is increasing and from our statistics, we can see local and overseas visitors are reaching the same percentage.
“Besides that, the centre also offers the public to adopt an orang utan for a short duration in the centre.
“SWC has also invited the public to participate in various orang utan rehabilitation efforts through the centre’s adoption programmes.
“The programme enables the ‘adoption’ of a specific orang utan through an annual fee of RM200 for individual and RM10,000 for corporate bodies or companies,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson further explained that fees from the programme will be used to fund conservation activities and the rehabilitation of wildlife in the state.
However, the spokesperson advised the public to avoid visiting the centre during the fruit season as there won’t be many orang utans around.
“They will be going into the jungle to look for fruits to eat,” said the spokesperson.
