First Bornean orangutan sighting in Usun Apau National Park, Sarawak.

Ahmad Ampeng,Mohd Shamsul Bahri Abdan-Saleman,Shaffeqe Affendy Zakaria,Badrul Munir Md-Zain,Syafiani Osman,Shukor Md Nor,Boyd Simpson,Jack Liam,Carl Traelholt

doi:10.3897/bdj.9.e60753

Abstract

Wildlife surveys were conducted in Usun Apau National Park (UANP), Sarawak from Oct 2017 to Oct 2020. This was the first attempt to document fauna diversity in Usun Apau National Park on the UANP plateau at 1200-1400 m a.s.l. On 17 September 2020, 10 AM, we observed an orangutan individual, Pongo pygmaeus, over a period of one minute at Libut Camp UANP (E: 114039’.546, N: 2052’36.44) at 1,020 m a.s.l. We also recorded four nests and orangutan vocalisation twice. This observation is important for Bornean orangutan conservation as this was the first orangutan sighting in UANP and well outside the species distribution range for in Sarawak.

Highlights

Orangutan is considered a fully protected species under the Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998
From October 2017 to October 2020, a team led by the Sarawak Forest Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark undertook 12 field surveys to Usun Apau National Park (UANP; E: 114 38.258, N: 3 2.252) (Fig. 1)
Four orangutan nests were found in the adjacent area with three new and one old nest (Fig. 2)

Summary

Introduction

Orangutan is considered a fully protected species under the Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998. Though they are protected and listed as critically endangered, information relating to their current population size and distribution in Sarawak is still limited with most surveys never having been published (Meredith 1995, Blouch 1997, Pandong et al 2018). A British team surveyed UANP in the 1950s with no records of orangutan (Arnold 1957).

Results

Conclusion