Samboja Lodge/Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

Iza and the PRIS orangutan, which she shakes hands with every time she passes it since we've moved here

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks ago, Jill, Iza and I went up north to visit Samboja Lestari, the orangutan protection and rehab center, which our school helped create back in the 1990s. We were scouting out the lodge and grounds to help finalize details for an upcoming middle school trip. The lodge itself, is very impressive, built of nearly all local materials and based on many traditional designs. The animals, however, are in not as impressive of a state.

the unique looking lodge with its high observation point
(and 2 very nice, expensive hotel suites)

Iza enjoying the view from the highest lookout tower in the lodge.
From here you can see most of the orangutan islands, each either just males, females or those with Hepatitis and other diseases

our fearless guide, Agus, telling us the good, the bad, and the ugly

I know we live in the tropics, but our new home town is pretty urban. The grounds here were much more thick with vegetation, and the main focus of the foundation now is reforestation of all native species, a massive undertaking

the Borneo Sun Bear, which is the symbol of Balikpapan. It is the smallest bear in the world, only about 2-2.5 feet/<1 meter high at the shoulders, a bit like a medium to large dog. Though not all of them have it, they are named this as the patch on the chest often looks like a sun in a dark sky

Look at the size of its claws.
These bears are here because of loss of habitat